| THE DOME OF DISCOVERY | |
| Designed by Ralph Tubbs | |
| Assisted by Michael Patrick, Frank Tischler and Keith Bennett |
| British initiative in exploration and discovery is as strong to-day as
ever it was....................... South Bank Exhibition Guide 1951 |
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| The magnificent Dome of Discovery, seen above from the
Waterloo Station Gate, dominated the 'upstream' portion of the site. 365 feet
in diameter and reaching 93 feet at its highest point, the Dome housed a self
contained exhibition over several floors and galleries. At the time the aluminium roof, supported on a framework of tubular steel struts was the largest dome, and the largest aluminium structure ever built. Although the pictures show a concrete wall around the inside of the Dome this did not support the roof - it mearly provided protection against the elements. All of the support for the roof came from the tubular 'outriggers' which were hinged to allow the roof a certain amount of movement in high winds. |
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As can be seen left The Dome was the biggest structure on the site and looked to be a permanent addition to the South Bank, but that didn't stop it being swept away when the Conservatives were returned to power after the Festival closed. Once you had managed to get to the head of the queue there was a clearly defined way round the Dome so you saw everything before being released back into the daylight. Your trip took you first to 'The Land'which showed our determination to discover, tame and develop land throughout the world. From exploring, the trail took you through surveying, water engineering, tropical agriculture, controlling pests, developing tropical medicines, and the development of Commonwealth agriculture and the transport links with Empire. Then it was on to 'The Earth' where you would be informed about the formation and construction of our planet, the origin of minerals and the value of archaeology. The baying of dogs next drew you to the 'Polar' exhibit complete with live huskies from the Falklands which could be viewed in action from a special upper-gallery viewing area. Alongside was a section explaining what we had, and were hoping to discover in the Polar Regions - and to prove it there was even a reconstruction of a modern Polar base hut. With a final look at travel in the frozen wastes and the scientic aims you moved on to 'The Sea'. This celebrated our grand sea-faring history from the early navigators, via a mock-up of the stern of Cook's 'Endeavour' to the important business of charting the seas and predicting tides. A short section on Research ships formed a bridge to the science of the sea where knowledge gained about the sea, its composition, physical behaviour and the creatures that inhabit the ocean beds were on view for all to see. From 'The Sea' to 'The Sky' where everyting from the ionosphere to locating thunderstorms was simply explained. There was even a weather forecasting station from where you could purchase the days weather forecast - although there was no mechanism for asking for your money back when the sunshine turned to rain. It was no doubt good news for your tired legs that there were only three more sections to go. First you had to reach for the stars in 'Outer Space' - an area that was causing a lot of excitement in the early 1950s! Speeding up the giant escalator you learnt about time, the Earth in relation to the other planets, the moon, telescopes both optical and radio, and the sun and the stars. You could even try to steer the radio telescope which was mounted atop the Shot Tower and bounce signals back off the moon - which were shown as blips on a cathode ray tube 2.5 seconds after you sent them up into space.How they bounced them back off the moon when it was below the horizon was never explained - but it was a bit of fun anyway. From 'Outer Space' it was back down to earth with a bump as you entered 'The Living World'. The work of the early biologists, Ray, Brown and White, were described but they were dominated by Darwin who had a large part of the section dedicated to his work and theories. His historic work was compared with modern research and our ability to reconstruct extinct animals from fossils and archaeological finds. Finally we reached 'The Physical World' - a place inhabited by chemists, scientists and physicists. From great discoveries in physics and chemistry this final section took you on through the marvels of man-made chemical materials, the beauty of chemical structure and the use of science in fine arts. Then there was the new physical research which had recently given the world the cathode ray tube and the possibility of calculating machines doing complex sums in minutes that previously had taken months. Finally the world of Nuclear Physics was introduced, showing its work in medicine, improved communication and power. |
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| So that was the Dome. a great
showplace for our past endeavours and a chance to show how we were progressing
in the immediate post-war years. To our modern minds we may think the displays
were rather crude and lacked the sophistication we seem to need now. In fact
they were, in the main, masterpieces of post-war construction considering the
limited amount of materials available. It must be remembered that the public
were still recovering from wartime devastation and deprivation. Many lived in
substandard housing, didn't own a car or washing machine, and fridges and
television sets were, to most, a distant dream. Perhaps more than anything
these displays delivered a great deal of hope for what was to come in the
future. Although the overall theme of the Dome was masterminded by Ian Cox and the displays were mounted by the Design Research Unit, each section had its own conveners and designers as follows: |
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| Section | Theme Convener | Display Designers |
| THE LAND | Penrose Angwin, MBE | Stefan Buzas and Ronald Sandiford |
| THE EARTH | Sonia Withers | Robert Gutman |
| POLAR | Quintin Riley and J.L.P.Macnair | Jock Kinneir |
| THE SEA | C.Hamilton Ellis and Nigel Clayton | Austin Fraser and Ellis Miles |
| THE SKY | Arthur Garratt | Ronald Sandiford |
| OUTER SPACE | Penrose Angwin, MBE | Austin Fraser and Eric Towell |
| THE LIVING WORLD | Kenneth Chapman | Austin Fraser and Stirling Craig |
| THE PHYSICAL WORLD | Arthur Garratt and Jan Read | Ronald Ingles and Clifford Hatts |
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