Board of Trade: British Industries Fair: Minutes and Publications

BT 54

1915-1958

Files relating to the organisation of the fair; and records of its Advisory Committee, Council of Exhibitors, and Board of Directors, 1954 to 1958. This series also contains catalogues, circulars, letters, forms, invitations and passes.

BT 54/1-10 should be ordered by their piece and file numbers.

Records of and relating to the British Industries Fair during the Department of Overseas Trade's period of responsibility are in: BT 60 BT 61

Public Record(s)

English

• Board of Trade, Commercial Relations and Exports Department, 1949-1970
• Board of Trade, Export Promotion Department, 1946-1949
• British Industries Fair Ltd, 1954-1958
• Department of Overseas Trade, British Industries Fair, 1919-1946

69 boxes and volumes

Subject to 30 year closure

Topics

Trade and commerce

The first British Industries Fair (BIF) was held in 1915 at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London, in an attempt to encourage British firms to produce goods which had traditionally been imported from Germany and other countries. Only the exhibition of British goods was permitted and a total of nearly 34,000 attended. The success of the first Fair led to further Fairs being held in 1916 and 1917 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and in 1918 and 1919 at the London Docks.

A section of the British Industries Fair was organised in Glasgow in 1917, 1918, 1920 and 1921.

Another section representing the heavy industries was inaugurated at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham in 1920 with the aid of a grant for publicity from the Board of Trade. These two sections accompanied the London section which was held at Crystal Palace from 1920. In 1921, a Board of Trade Committee of Inquiry under the chairmanship of Sir Frank Warner recommended that the Glasgow section be discontinued and the Fair be maintained on an annual basis with one section in London and another in Birmingham. The Fair was held each year until 1957 except in 1925, the second year of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, and 1941 to 1946.

The London section was held at White City from 1921, and in 1930 a second section was added and this was held at Olympia. From 1938 the two London sections were held at Olympia and the newly opened Earls Court building. The Birmingham section remained at Castle Bromwich.

By 1948 the purpose of the BIF was described by M Logan in The Histories of the Fair as being 'to show the world the strength of British industry, the craftmanship, the design and the quality that is implied in the words 'British Made'.

Originally the responsibility for organising the London section of the Fair lay with the Board of Trade but it was transferred to the Department of Overseas Trade on 1 April 1919 who, together with the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, were also responsible for the Birmingham Fair. It returned to the Export Promotion Department of the board in 1946, and was exercised by the new Commercial Relations and Exports Department of the board after 1 January 1949. After the 1954 Fair responsibility for organisation and management was transferred to a private company, British Industries Fair Ltd. The Company was voluntarily wound up on 20 February 1958 and the Fair has not been held since 1957.