![cmglee Skylon model at Museum of London](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Cmglee_Skylon_model_at_Museum_of_London.jpg)
The Skylon was a futuristic-looking, slender, vertical, cigar-shaped
steel tensegrity
Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usua ...
structure located by the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, that gave the illusion of 'floating' above the ground, built in 1951 for the
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people:
...
.
A popular joke of the period was that, like the British economy of 1951, "It had no visible means of support".
Construction
The Skylon was the "Vertical Feature" that was an abiding symbol of the Festival of Britain. It was designed by
Hidalgo Moya
John Hidalgo Moya (5 May 1920 – 3 August 1994), sometimes known as Jacko Moya, was an American-born architect who lived and worked largely in England.
Biography
Born 5 May 1920 in Los Gatos, California, US, to an English mother and Mexican f ...
,
Philip Powell and
Felix Samuely
Felix James Samuely (3 February 1902 – 22 January 1959) was a Structural engineer.
Born in Vienna, he immigrated to Britain in 1933. Worked with Erich Mendelsohn on the De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea (1936), the British Pavilion for the B ...
, and fabricated by
Painter Brothers of
Hereford,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, on London's
South Bank between
Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side.
The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats in the ...
and
Hungerford Bridge
The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. Owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (who use its official name of Charing Cross Bridge) it is a steel truss railway bridge ...
. The Skylon consisted of a steel
latticework frame, pointed at both ends and supported on cables slung between three steel beams. The partially constructed Skylon was rigged vertically, then grew taller in situ.
The architects' design was made structurally feasible by the engineer Felix Samuely who, at the time, was a lecturer at the
Architectural Association School of Architecture in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury. The base was nearly 15 metres (50 feet) from the ground, with the top nearly 90 metres (300 feet) high. The frame was clad in aluminium louvres lit from within at night.
Questions were asked in
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
regarding the danger to visitors from lightning-strikes to the Skylon, and the papers reported that it was duly roped off at one point, in anticipation of a forecast thunderstorm.
Name
The name was suggested by Mrs A. G. S. Fidler, wife of the chief architect of the
Crawley Development Corporation
Crawley Development Corporation was set up in February 1947 by the Government of the United Kingdom to establish, administer and control the development of the New Town of Crawley in accordance with the New Towns Act 1946. The Corporation had t ...
. Moya wrote, "We were unimpressed at first but soon came to accept that, by combining the suggestions of Pylon, Sky and Nylon (a fascinating new material in 1951), it was wonderfully descriptive name which has lasted forty years, considerably
longer than the structure itself."
Incidents
A few days before the King and Queen visited the exhibition in May 1951, Skylon was climbed at midnight by Philip Gurdon, a student at
Birkbeck College, who attached a
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
Air Squadron scarf near the top. Police constable Frederick Hicks was sent up to retrieve the scarf the following morning.
Demolition
In spite of its popularity with the public, the £30,000 cost of dismantling and re-erecting the Skylon elsewhere (equivalent to £ as of ) was deemed too much for a government struggling with post-war austerity. Skylon was removed in 1952 when the rest of the exhibition was dismantled, on the orders of
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, who saw the Festival and its architectural structures as a symbol of the preceding Labour Government's vision of a new socialist Britain.
Speculation as to the Skylon's fate included theories from
Jude Kelly
Judith "Jude" Pamela Kelly, (born March 1954), is a British theatre director and producer. She is a director of the WOW Foundation, which organises the annual Women of the World Festival, founded in 2010 by Kelly. From 2006 to 2018, she was Ar ...
, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, that it was thrown into the
River Lea in east London, dumped into the Thames, buried under
Jubilee Gardens, made into souvenirs or sold as scrap. The base is preserved in the Museum of London and the wind cups are held in a private collection.
An investigation was carried out by the ''
Front Row'' programme on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
and the result was broadcast on 8 March 2011. It was revealed that the Skylon and the roof of the Dome of Discovery had been sold to
George Cohen, Sons and Company scrap metal dealers of Wood Lane,
Hammersmith, and dismantled at their works in Bidder Street,
Canning Town, on the banks of the
River Lea. Some of the metal fragments were then made into a series of commemorative
paper-knives and other artefacts. The inscriptions on the paper-knives read "600"
[. George Cohen and Sons changed its name to 'The 600 Group' when it moved its head-office to 600 Commercial Road, ]Stepney
Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...
, the Wood Lane site having been sold to the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
. and "Made from the aluminium alloy roof sheets which covered the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain, South Bank. The Dome, Skylon and 10 other buildings on the site, were dismantled by George Cohen and Sons and Company Ltd during six months of 1952."