History

The Great Exhibition

When the Great Exhibition opened in May 1851 it was much more than just a shop window for British industry.  There was a mixture of pride in Britain's manufacturers, who were deemed the strongest in the world, and a desire to improve upon it by provoking international competition.

People attended the Exhibition from all over the world; Thomas Cook offered an all-inclusive excursion ticket – return rail fare, overnight stay in London and entrance fee – and brought millions to London for the first time.  A group of women straw-hat makers from Luton hired a charabanc and made a dramatic entrance.  In 1851, for one old penny, people used the first public toilets.  They drank bottles of Schweppes mineral water, ate buns from Bath and enjoyed hampers from Fortnum and Mason.

Queen Victoria could not keep away, partly because of her pride in her husband's achievements and also because of the fascination of the exhibits.  She was presented with numerous artefacts, many of which formed the basis of a fledgling collection that became the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Unwittingly, in a reverse of the norm, it was the wealthy women who kept the place clean, not their poorer servants.  When contemplating the cleaning of the floors, the Exhibition Commissioners realised that ladies' long crinoline silk dresses would sweep across the floor, brushing dust and debris into the cracks between the floorboards.

Among the thousands of exhibits were locks and door handles by Mr. Chubb's firm, and the glittering Koh-I-Noor diamond from India, an enormous African stuffed elephant and delicate Paisley patterned textiles from Kashmir.  From Canada came canoes and furs, Birmingham sent metalwork, Stoke-on-Trent ceramics, Italy book bindings and there was British, Austrian and German furniture.

The triumph of the Great Exhibition had impact here and abroad.  Suddenly the need to host an international exhibition became a subject of national pride and more were held in London, Glasgow, Paris, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.  Like the original Exhibition in London these attracted stands from around the world, and amongst the literally thousands of exhibits was an improved ear trumpet, a washing machine that could be used for domestic or public laundry and inventions for extracting gold from base metals.

Visiting any of these exhibitions must have been an experienced to be remembered and recounted for a lifetime. 

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