Enjoying the exhibition
‘On either hand will be seen the natives and other inhabitants of Britain beyond the Seas engaged in the daily occupations’
The Bristolian newspaper, May 1914
The Bristol International Exhibition was planned on a vast scale. Visitors could walk through a Malaysian rubber plantation and an Australian vineyard. In the Indian bazaar, they could watch Indian ‘natives’ at work and buy from them. They could learn from an exhibition on industry in the International Pavilion, watch Morris dancers on the Village Green in Shakespeare’s England, dance in the Pavilion of Music with its floor of Canadian satin wood, or scare themselves on a roller coaster ride.
The bandstands and halls had a continuous programme of music, and the tea rooms served endless cups of tea. On the Pageant Ground 2,000 Bristolians re-enacted great moments in Bristol’s history in ‘the grandest of all pageants.’
Everything was described as wonderful, but few people came. The exhibition was bankrupt within two weeks of opening, but struggled on until the war stopped it all.
The Bristol International Exhibition was planned on a vast scale. Visitors could walk through a Malaysian rubber plantation and an Australian vineyard. In the Indian bazaar, they could watch Indian ‘natives’ at work and buy from them. They could learn from an exhibition on industry in the International Pavilion, watch Morris dancers on the Village Green in Shakespeare’s England, dance in the Pavilion of Music with its floor of Canadian satin wood, or scare themselves on a roller coaster ride.
The bandstands and halls had a continuous programme of music, and the tea rooms served endless cups of tea. On the Pageant Ground 2,000 Bristolians re-enacted great moments in Bristol’s history in ‘the grandest of all pageants.’
Everything was described as wonderful, but few people came. The exhibition was bankrupt within two weeks of opening, but struggled on until the war stopped it all.