Friday 17th March 2023
Difficulty: Easy
The Skylon (Quiz #119)
The Skylon at the Festival of Britain, 1951. British Official Photograph - public domain
The Skylon was a 90 metre high futuristic-looking steel "tensegrity" structure located by the Thames in London, that gave the illusion of 'floating' above the ground. It was built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. It was said that the structure mirrored the British economy of the time, having no visible means of support.
1. Questions were asked in Parliament regarding the danger to visitors from what?
2. In May 1951, Skylon was climbed at midnight by Philip Gurdon, a student at Birkbeck College, who left what at the top?
3. The Festival of Britain ran for five months before closing in September 1951. It had been a success, and was extremely popular. But who ordered the Skylon to be removed and destroyed after the event, because the Festival and its architectural structures were seen as a symbol of the preceding Labour Government's vision of a new socialist Britain?
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