British Empire Exhibition

The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held from 1924 to 1925 in Wembley, London.

It was opened on April 23 by King George V.. The British Empire comprised at that time, 58 countries, of which only Gambia and Gibraltar did not attend. The cost of the largest exhibition ever staged in the world, amounted to £ 12 million. 27 million visitors were recorded

The stated aim of the exhibition was " the activation of the trade, the strengthening of the links between the mother country and the colonies, and the colonies with each other, and the facilitation of a meeting of all the subjects of the British flag on common land to get to know ." Maxwell Ayrton was the architect of the project. The three main buildings were the palaces of industry, technology and the arts. The palace of the art at the time was the largest steel structure in the world. The exhibits included the still famous today locomotive No. 4472 Flying Scotsman.

The buildings were connected by "non -stop" train tour.

Most exhibition halls were designed for a limited time period and later demolished, only the Palace of the technology and the Pavilion of the British government survived until the seventies. Instead of the Empire pool was built Wembley Arena, and on the proposal of the Chairman of the Exhibition Committee Baron James Stevenson was maintained for the stadium, which became the home of English football until it was demolished in 2002 and replaced by the new Wembley Stadium.

The British Post Office was the occasion of the exhibition is the first issue special stamps.