A Good Day Out

Victorian England celebrated its industrial and artistic progress in a series of large exhibitions, starting with the famous Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, opened by Queen Victoria, and ending in four major shows staged in Northern locations during the Golden Jubilee year of 1887. This book traces the evolution of these massive enterprises throughout a period of rapid social change, when cheap public transport and shorter hours at work created a popular desire for entertainment, rather than instruction, when working people visited exhibitions. Using contemporary newspapers and available records, this illustrated booklet outlines the progress of these shows, with descriptions of their organisation and what they had on offer to visitors. It will appeal to those interested in English society during the Victorian times, and in the staging of major public events in the mid and later years of Queen Victoria's reign.