This is a paperback issue of the guide to the events held at the Pleasure Gardens at Battersea Park in London (3 May - 3 November 1951). Many of those who visited the main South Bank site would have taken one of the shuttle boats from the Thames Piers down to the Pier at Battersea Park.
The Pleasure Gardens entertainments at Battersea were different from the rest of the more educational festival events. The Gardens were supposed to add an element of fun to the Festival of Britain programme. Whilst the majority of goods displayed at the rest of the festival were British, the Pleasure Gardens sourced a number of the fairground rides from the US. The latest and most exciting rides could not be obtained in Great Britain at this time.
The Pleasure Gardens were more nostalgic and featured references to earlier pleasure gardens at Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Cremorne - there were traditional entertainments such as Punch and Judy and Music Hall along with gardens, water features and Rowland Emett’s Oyster Creek railway.
The cover page of the guide for the Pleasure Gardens was very different from all the other official guidebooks - this was to highlight that the visitor would have a very different experience here.
An interesting article all about the Battersea Gardens can be found online:
My guide book is in very good vintage condition and is a harder-to-find issue from the series of guides and publications issued at the time.
It has 52 pages - and lots of illustrations, some in most attractive mid-century adverts are featured in full colour - there is also a double-page pictorial map of the site detailing all the attractions.
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