During the summer of 1951 the gloom of the post-war
Britain was dispelled temporarily with the staging of the Festival of Britain.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park a
similar display of British achievements in science and technology, art and culture
was staged on London's South Bank and, for the more frivolous minded, at Battersea
Pleasure Gardens. It was in Battersea in May 1951 that the first Guinness Festival
Clock began to entertain the public. This 'Crazy Clock' was Guinness's contribution
to the Festival fun.
It was the brainchild of the Guinness Advertising Manager Martin Pick, who had
trained as an engineer before he entered the world of advertising. The Clock was
designed by the firm of Lewitt Him and took five months for clockmakers Baume
and Co Ltd. of Hatton Garden to construct. Standing 25 feet high, the Clock's
internal mechanism was highly elaborate and included nine reversible electric
motors and three synchronous clocks.
No clock of comparable complexity had been made in England for 300 years. Every
fifteen minutes the crowds were spellbound by the four and a half minute routine
featuring well known characters from Guinness advertisements which everybody knew
at the time. The 'Guinness animals' were the creation of artist John Gilroy of
S.H.Benson's advertising agency. He produced a series of colourful and amusing
posters in which different zoo animals made off with their keeper's Guinness!
(The zoo keeper was actually a caricature of Gilroy himself.)
The menagerie included a sealion (balancing a glass of Guinness on its nose),
an ostrich (who had just swallowed a glass of Guinness whole), a pelican, bear,
lion, tortoise, kangaroo, crocodile and even an upside-down kinkajou. The most
famous of all, however, was the Guinness toucan who retained the public's affection
from his debut in 1935 right up to his final retirement in 1982. Guinness also
made use of characters from Lewis Carroll's book 'Alice in Wonderland' in its
advertising in the 1930s-50s. We might think it unheard of now to use characters
from a children's book to advertise beer, but at the time it was quite acceptable.
This explains why the Mad Hatter, with his fishing rod, appears on the Guinness
Festival Clock, along with the zoo keeper, toucans and other Guinness animals.
So what did the Clock actually do?
Click Here
To View a larger, black and white picture of the Guinness Festival Clock.
Position your mouse over the various elements of the Clock and 'click' to reveal
what each section did. There is technical data for the item too. A guided tour
of all six routines is available at the foot of the page.
The original Guinness Clock proved so popular that Guinness received enquiries
from a number of local authorities, department stores and exhibition promoters
who all wanted to borrow it for display. This inspired the building of slightly
smaller 'travelling versions' of the clock, the first two of which were ready
by September 1952. One went to Morecambe loaded on a Guinness trailer to be installed
at Happy Mount Park as the main feature of the town's illuminations. It remained
there until October 21st and was seen by thousands of people, young and old, as
they walked through the park. Next it appeared in the fifth floor exhibition hall
of John Lewis store in Manchester where, although it had to be dismantled to negotiate
the stairs and the centre well, it was back in working order within three days.
The other clock went to Southend's Western Esplanade as part of the seaside town
corporation's illuminations. In all weathers and at all times people gathered
to see the clock go through its routine. From Southend it went to Park Royal,
where it stayed for a short time before moving on to Berwick-on-Tweed, where it
stood in front of the town hall for the Christmas festivities. In all eight travelling
Guinness Clocks and one miniature (5ft high) version were constructed, and they
were seen at many other places including Paignton, Barry Island, Folkestone, South
Shields, Leamington Spa, the Isle of Sheppey, Chester, Warrington, Brighton, New
Brighton, Southsea, Bristol and Great Yarmouth (illustrated).
The clocks toured seaside towns for seven years or more, and also made appearances
at trade fairs, carnivals, agricultural shows and in department stores. One went
to the USA on loan for two years, and two went to Ireland. On June 9th 1959 another
Guinness Clock appeared called the Guinness Time Piece (which also became known
as the Guinness Clock). This was an even more elaborate mechanical contraption,
built in three sections, weighing four tons, and mounted on the back of a trailer
for easy transportation. It was designed by John Lansdell and Willy Szoomanski
and manufactured by F.B.Elcom Ltd.
As with the original Guinness Clocks, every quarter of an hour brought a frenzied
burst of activity from an assortment of Guinness animals and their keeper accompanied
by fairground music. In the centre a revolving stage with four set pieces showed
Guinness in every season of the year and to the right in front of the caravan
the ever-harassed keeper is chased by various animals from door to door. At first
the keeper has the bottle of Guinness, then a few moments later, they all reappear,
now running in the other direction, with the brown bear in front with the bottle
being chased by the keeper. It was first exhibited at the Guinness Bicentenary
Garden Party that summer then set off on its travels via Battersea Pleasure Gardens
where it stayed for a fortnight. Since the Clocks' mechanism could easily be affected
by wind, it was necessary to have an electrician standing by. He would also be
responsible for counting the visitors to the clock.
Changing times were soon to doom these travelling mechanical wonders. Guinness
no longer used the animals in its advertisements, and spare parts for the clocks
became difficult to obtain. They were finally withdrawn in October 1966 and sent
for scrap - a sad end to a much-loved and unique form of Guinness advertising.
The GCC thanks
Martin Packer,
who is more than happy to provide members with further information on the Festival
of Britain, 1951.
