Pageants 20
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The Harrow Historical Pageant
The Harrow Historical Pageant was one of the first of the inter-war pageants to return to the traditional civic style of the pre-1914 movement (see also the entry for the Reading Historical Pageant... -
Silver Jubilee Pageant
There was a revival of historical pageantry in 1977 on the occasion of the queen’s silver jubilee, and David Clarke’s pageant in Guildford was one of the most notable examples. Clarke had worked wi... -
The Pageant of Essex
Following on from the Barking Pageant in 1931, the larger-in-scope Pageant of Essex was staged in summer 1932 to raise money for the newly opened King George Hospital in Ilford. Directed by Frank L... -
The Greenwich Night Pageant
Taking place against the backdrop of economic depression, the Greenwich Night Pageant partly aimed to stimulate the new ‘important industries’ that had sprung up along the Thames, and, during the r... -
The Pageant of London
The Pageant of London was the main attraction of the Festival of Empire at Crystal Palace in 1911. Undoubtedly the largest and most ambitious pageant of the Edwardian period, if not the whole twent... -
Warwickshire Coronation Pageant
The Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953 heralded a ‘new Elizabethan Age’, evidenced by the music of Benjamin Britten (whose opera Gloriana was unfortunately a failure), the photography of Cec... -
The Three Towns Pageants
The Festival of Britain 1951 was the key cultural event of the period.3 Nationwide, a programme of events was skilfully planned with the aim of embracing modernist influences on British culture whi... -
The Chelsea Historical Pageant
Performed in 1908, the Chelsea Pageant was part of the initial wave of ‘pageantitis’, and notably the first pageant to be staged within the capital. ‘Little Chelsea’, declared The Times, was ‘going... -
Oxford Historical Pageant
The Oxford Historical Pageant of 1907 was a major civic event, and took place in the grounds of Magdalen College. Despite being wholly a part of the initial outburst of pageant fever, it was one of... -
Pageant of Farnham
The Pageant of Farnham was the first of many pageants devised by Neville Lovett (the future Bishop of Salisbury and Portsmouth). It was held to repay some of the debts on the Church House (now Vine... -
St Albans Pageant 1953: A Masque of the Queens
Having staged a pageant during the height of Edwardian ‘pageant fever’ in 1907, as well as one of the early post-war pageants in 1948, St Albans did it for the third time during the Coronation cele... -
A Pageant of Bristol Cathedral
A pageant was held to mark the 800th anniversary of Bristol Cathedral. Three performances were given in the nave of the cathedral. The focus of the pageant on the history of the cathedral, from its... -
The Pageant of Guildford 1957
The Pageant of Guildford was a relatively large event staged to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the granting of the town’s first charter. It was produced by Christopher Ede—by this point the m... -
A Pageant of Hampton
A Pageant of Hampton was the second of three large pageants in Southampton in the interwar period, following the Mayflower Pageant of 1920. Unlike that event, and the Silver Jubilee Pageant that fo... -
The Walthamstow Pageant 1930
The Walthamstow Pageant of 1930 was staged to commemorate the granting of a Charter of Borough Incorporation the previous year. It took place indoors at the plush Palace Theatre, an impressive buil... -
The Pageant of Empire
The Pageant of Empire took place over the course of a wet six weeks in July and August 1924 in the huge newly-constructed concrete Wembley Stadium. It was just one attraction of the monumental Brit... -
Southend and Westcliff-on-Sea Pageant
Preparations for the Southend and Westcliff-on-Sea pageant began with a crowded meeting at King’s Hall on Friday 14 March 1909, where the main features of the show were outlined and explained. The ... -
The Pageant of England
If one were in search of England in the 1930s, as so many contemporaries from H.V. Morton to J.B. Priestley to George Orwell seemed to be, one could do worse than head to Slough. The army had set u... -
The Southampton Tudor Pageant
The Tudor Pageant of 1914 was the first major pageant to take place in Southampton in the twentieth century. It was the invention of the new rector of St Mary’s Church, Reverend Neville Lovett, who... -
A Pageant of Monarchy
This was one of the many pageants in Surrey produced by David Clarke, who had worked with Christopher Ede on the Guildford pageant of 1957, and had himself produced the 1968 Guildford pageant. Like...