Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938
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Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938 (unofficially known as the British Empire Exhibition, Glasgow) was an international exposition held at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, from May to December 1938.
The Exhibition was intended to mark fifty years since Glasgow's first great exhibition, the International Exhibition (1888) held at Kelvingrove Park. It also offered a chance to boost the economy of Scotland, recovering from the depression of the 1930s.
Despite 1938 being one of the wettest summers on record, the Exhibition attracted 12 million visitors.
An international football competition, the Empire Exhibition Trophy, was held in conjunction with the Exhibition.
Many purpose built pavilions were erected on the site, the two largest being the Palace of Engineering and Palace of Industry, and many countries in the British Empire contributed their own national pavilion.
The most prominent structure on the site was the Tait Tower (officially the "Tower of Empire"), 300 feet high (91.44 m). Although it was intended to remain as a permanent monument after the exhibition, the tower was demolished in July of 1939.
The only major surviving original structure on the site is the the Palace of Art. In December 2007, the Festival buildings were reconstructed using digital imagery to recreate film footage of how the exhibition would have looked.Digital recreation of Exhibition
[edit] See also
- International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry (1888)
- Glasgow International Exhibition (1901)
- Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry (1911)
- Glasgow Garden Festival (1988)
[edit] Further reading
- Perilla Kinchin and Juliet Kinchin - Glasgow's Great Exhibitions: 1888, 1901, 1911, 1938, 1988 ISBN 0-9513124-0-5
