Launched by King George VI on 3 May 1951, the Festival of Britain was conceived as a “tonic” for a nation battered by war, debt and rationing. At a time of ongoing global conflicts and austerity, there are parallels with today.

Its impact in 1951 is hard to overstate. What buildings remained were smoke-blackened; the air was full of smog. Into this dreary landscape, the festival was an explosion of colour and creativity, offering a dazzling vision of the future.

Its most enduring legacy was the construction of the South Bank. The Royal Festival Hall was built on a bomb site by the Thames. With the additions in the 1960s of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery (collectively granted Grade II-listed building status earlier this year), the Southbank Centre became the largest arts complex in the UK.

This summer, poems from more than 2,000 London schoolchildren will be projected on to its concrete walls as........

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