page_title: Chelsea Flower Show
section_title: Royal Hospital, Chelsea – later 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Chelsea Flower Show / History / Royal Hospital, Chelsea – later 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2009 Statue seen before the Grand Pavilion at the Bullring entrance.
context_page_description: The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London. Held at Chelsea since 1912, it is the most famous flower and landscape gardens show in the United Kingdom, and perhaps in the world. The show is attended by members of the British Royal Family and attracts visitors from all continents.
  Highlights to the Chelsea Flower Show include the avant-garde show gardens designed by leading names with Floral Marquee at the centrepiece. The Show also features smaller gardens such as the Artisan and Urban Gardens.
context_section_description: The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 was a sufficient cause for a flower show that reflected the celebratory mood of the country. Most members of the royal family attended that year. Due to other commitments, the only member of the family unable to attend was the Queen herself.
  And the Show went on to increase in popularity throughout the second half of the century – until its popularity became its major problem.  Crowding within the tents had been a recurring refrain during the interwar years, but always mastered by increasing the tentage; photographs show heavy crowds in the open, especially in the vicinity of the rock gardens.  As the 1970s progressed, the attendance at the Chelsea Show climbed, by as much as 6,000 visitors in a single year (1978). In 1979, crowding became so severe in the mornings that the turnstiles were temporarily closed, and it was clear that some emergency action was needed.  It was decided to open the Show at 8 am next year, and close it at 8.30 in the evenings, with a  reduced price 
  for entry after 4 pm, to try to draw people away from the morning time-slot; and a one-way system was laid out in the marquee (an expedient that had been rejected as impracticable 20 years earlier). The arrangements worked better than expected in 1980, when a bare majority of Council voted for the imposition of a ceiling on the number of tickets sold.  But numbers continued to increase, and in 1987 the turnstiles were closed again.  In 1988 a limit of 40,000 visitors per day was imposed – a reduction of 90,000 in total from the previous year – and members were charged for tickets for the first time.  An immediate response was a fall in attendance; by April, ticket booking was so slow that national advertisements were taken out to encourage people to come to Chelsea, and the original announcement that tickets would not be available at the gates was rescinded.  1988 was also the first year that ticket touts made their presence felt, and the RHS felt the frustration of seeing its tickets sold at a considerable mark-up without being able to do anything.
  An alarmed Council now began to look seriously at the idea of moving the show to a larger venue. Battersea Park, Osterley Park, and Wisley were suggested; one proposal was that Chelsea should be limited to plant sales, and the sundries rerouted elsewhere; the firm of Land Use Consultants was hired to prepare a feasibility study, and after examining all these options, concluded that the Show should stay at Chelsea. The real rescue came from the expansion of the shows programme into other venues, and in particular from the takeover of the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in 1993: the increased options for both members and for exhibitors meant that the intense criticisms and conflict of the 1980s over the future of the Show did not return.
caption: Statue in front of the grand pavilion at the 2009 show
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