I say it was a national event but there is little doubt that much of the focus was on an exhibition on London\u2019s South Bank which reclaimed a huge tract of derelict land and attracted 8.5 million visitors. As an 11-year-old schoolboy, I was one of them, making the pilgrimage from Leamington Spa with my family. I still recall the excitement of the Dome of Discovery<\/a> which was a vast scallop shell containing segments devoted to earth, sea, sky, the polar regions and outer space. The site was also dominated by the massive cigar-shaped Skylon, described as a kind of \u201cluminous exclamation mark\u201d. After a morning on the South Bank we spent an afternoon at the Battersea Park Pleasure Gardens where there was a funfair, a miniature railway and, best of all, a theatre resurrecting old-time music hall. Returning home, I felt as if I had been to an exhausting but exhilarating party.<\/p>\n
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