Another Nickel In The Machine » Festival of Britain http://www.nickelinthemachine.com A blog about 20th Century London Tue, 21 Nov 2017 16:31:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Battersea, the Festival of Britain and the Ku Klux Klan http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2009/05/battersea-the-festival-of-britain-and-the-ku-klux-klan/ http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2009/05/battersea-the-festival-of-britain-and-the-ku-klux-klan/#comments Sat, 16 May 2009 12:45:17 +0000 nickelinthemachine http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/?p=916 The Ku Klux Klan at the Festival of Britain 1951

The Ku Klux Klan at the Festival of Britain 1951

During some research I was doing about an upcoming post about the sad and neglected Battersea Power Station I came across these two strange pictures from 1951. The photographs are from the Life magazine collection.

The notes accompanying the photographs state only that they portray the Ku Klux Klan in a torch-lit procession at the Festival Pleasure Gardens at Battersea, and that they were ‘celebrating’ the Festival of Britain. Both the photos are dated 8th October 1951.

Does anyone know about this event? I’m sure Britain was a relatively innocent place as far as racial matters were concerned back in 1951, but the Ku Klux Klan! In Battersea park! How did this come about? I’d love to know more information.

The torch-lit procession, 8th October 1951

The torch-lit procession, 8th October 1951

The photographs can be found here

Steel Pulse – Ku Klux Klan

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