page_title: Empire Exhibition, Scotland
section_title: The event
hierarchical_section_title: Empire Exhibition, Scotland / The event
caption_attribution_description: English: A 1938 Empire Exhibition Season Ticket. Glasgow - Bellahouston Park, Scotland.Rosser 13:28, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
context_page_description: Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938 was an international exposition held at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, from May to December 1938.
  The Exhibition offered a chance to showcase and boost the economy of Scotland, and celebrate Empire trade and developments, recovering from the depression of the 1930s. It also marked fifty years since Glasgow's first great exhibition, the International Exhibition held at Kelvingrove Park. It was the second British Empire Exhibition, the first having been held at Wembley Park, London in 1924 and 1925.
  Its function was similar to the first National Exhibition, in Paris in 1798, and to the first International Exhibition, the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 attended by 6 million visitors.
  It was declared open by King George VI and Queen Mary on 3 May 1938 at the Opening Ceremony in Ibrox Stadium, attended by 146,000 people.
  In addition to the Royal Patrons and the Honorary Presidents representing governments and institutions here and in the Dominions, the Exhibition President was the Earl of Elgin who was also President of the Scottish Development Council, initiators of the exposition.
context_section_description: Despite 1938 being one of the wettest summers on record, the Exhibition attracted 12.8 million visitors, in spite of not being open on a Sunday.
  Exhibition pavilions and leisure and recreation buildings were erected on the site, the two largest commercial pavilions being the Palace of Engineering and Palace of Industry, and countries in the British Empire contributed their own national pavilions. The Exhibition was master-planned by Thomas S. Tait, who headed a team of  architects, which included Basil Spence and Jack Coia.
  The most prominent structure was the Tait Tower (officially the Tower of Empire) 300 feet in its own height which on the hill made it 470 feet (140 m) high. Although it could have remained as a permanent monument after the exhibition, the tower was handed over to the Army after the exhibition ended and demolished in June 1939. Note the date. The story this demolition was to avoid it being used by German bomber aircraft for location-finding is an urban myth. The nearby Gilmorehill tower at Glasgow University is at least as prominent so equally useful for location finding and wasn't demolished.
caption: A season ticket pass
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