A history of the Ideal Home Show
These photographs from the Daily Herald Archive show model houses, domestic appliances, and the latest trends featured at the Ideal Home Exhibition from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home Exhibition, village on the hillNational Science and Media Museum
The Ideal Home Exhibition
The Ideal Home Exhibition was first opened in 1908 by Lord Northcliffe, proprietor of the Daily Mail newspaper, to bring together everything you might need to create the ideal home. The show was vast; the first one took one week and over 3,000 men to build.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home Exhibitions, model homesNational Science and Media Museum
The event acted as a publicity tool for the newspaper, but also stimulated debates around creating better housing conditions. Issues concerning child welfare, working-class housing and ‘homes fit for heroes’ were taken up during the first few decades.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home Exhibition, toolsNational Science and Media Museum
An Englishman’s home
In 1908 most of the British public rented their houses, but as mass production slowly improved living standards, people gained more disposable income and access to mortgages. Home owning led to more interest in interior design and events that would inspire home improvement.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home Exhibition, hanging chimneyNational Science and Media Museum
The early exhibitions were divided thematically into Domestic Labour Saving, Show Homes, Food, Interior Decoration and Leisure. The exhibition was very popular, with 300,000 visitors attending in 1924, doubling in 1937 and hitting a peak in 1957 with nearly 1.5 million visitors.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home Exhibition, Experimental HouseNational Science and Media Museum
Competition time
The Daily Mail invited designs for the Ideal House Competition each year and the winning schemes were constructed at the exhibition the following year. Builders were also keen to secure sales of these Ideal Houses and so many were built permanently across the country.
Housewives and daughters
Only 10% of married women were employed outside the home between the wars in Britain. The Ideal Home Exhibition was primarily aimed at housewives and their daughters in this period.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home Exhibition, the Kitchen TidyNational Science and Media Museum
Domestic work was physically demanding and time-consuming, so housewives were keen to view the latest ‘labour-saving’ technology at the show. From the 1930s, the exhibition became a launch pad for new gadgets such as vacuum cleaners, electric kettles, toasters and the Teasmade.
Shifting priorities
After the war, the emphasis shifted away from display stands to commercial stands which generated income during this period of post-war austerity. A rise in consumerism saw working people spend a higher proportion of their incomes on things previously seen as luxury items.
Window shopping
From the 1950s, the exhibition acted as a shop window for white goods and other new technology that shops could not display. Electric and automated devices were launched at the show in the 1920s and 1930s, but they were very expensive and beyond the means of most UK households.
By the 1950s these goods were much more accessible; washing machines and fridges became very popular. Superstores and commercial television took over this function in the 1970s.
A touch of glamour
In the 1920s, many European kings and queens designed gardens at the Ideal Home Exhibition. The British royal family have been frequent visitors to the show; Queen Elizabeth II herself has visited eleven times.
The rise of the celebrity in the 1950s and 60s saw big names of the day visiting, including Tom Jones, Eric Morecambe and the Rolling Stones. Celebrities and TV personalities are now part of the event, providing visitors with expert advice on food, drink, fashion and lifestyle.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home Exhibition, Georgian HouseNational Science and Media Museum
An optimist’s dream
The Ideal Home Exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the social and domestic history of this period. However, it also reflects a romantic notion of perfect houses and village greens that were, and continue to be, at odds with the lived reality of many people.
Full circle
New technology introduced at the show helped make domestic chores easier as more and more women entered the workplace outside the home. However, higher standards of hygiene mean that households, particularly women, are spending the same amount of time on chores as 100 years ago.
Daily Herald Photograph: Ideal Home ExhibitionNational Science and Media Museum
The Ideal Home Exhibition was held at Olympia Exhibition Centre until 1978 when it moved to Earls Court. In 2015 the show moved back to Olympia and still takes place today showing full scale show homes, trade stands, free talks and the latest technology to create the ideal home.
All images are from the Science Museum Group collection. Copyright Mirrorpix, Hulton Archive/Getty Images, and TopFoto.
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