however, was limited, many believed that to display their products would be to expose themselves to competitors. However, Cole’s persistence and the introduction of Prince Albert into the RSA saw many successful national exhibitions in London, which eventually led to Prince Albert’s suggestion of the Great Exhibition. Cole put his weight behind the idea that the exhibition must be international in scope, and in January in 1950 when the decision was announced the Prince became Chairman and worked with untiring enthusiasm. After some opposition from the British public the RSA worked assiduously through public meetings, advertising and other campaigning ventures to gain British acceptance. London was the obvious choice for its venue, but its exact location was a subject of deliberation as London’s heart of commerce and industry was in the East End. Therefore the decision to host the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London’s West was seen as an invasion of the wealthy middle class and aristocracy. A significant factor in the origins of the exhibition were local committees that were formed in the provinces, both to select exhibits and primarily raise funds, it having been decided that the Exhibition was not to be a drain on public funds. With the finance in place Hyde Park was in need of a glorious building to house all of these wonderful exhibits, a competition was run with 254 entries drawn from all over the world. However the contest for such a structure was fruitless and the Royal Committee (setup to run the competition) instead went ahead with building their own, stitching ideas from different entries. Enter Joseph Paxton, his design jotted down on a piece of blotting paper was to become the final design of perhaps the most famous building in its time. After the design was published in Punch public support was so great that the acceptance of Paxton’s plan was now assured. There were so many superlatives for its design, a prefabricated masterpiece, its modular design included 300,000 panes of glass and 3,300 iron columns. The success of the building should not just be measured simply by the building that houses it. What of the exhibits? There were split either side of the building British one side and its Empire and the rest of the world on the other.
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