Famous Worcester exhibition that drew a quarter of a million people

For by the time the Worcestershire Exhibition of 1882 closed its doors, nearly 223,000 people had visited. Remarkably, for a celebration of everything that was great about the county, from engineering to arts, manufacturing to agriculture, it was a retractable staircase that stole the show. 

A print in the Illustrated London News of July 29, 1882 to go with a story about “an exhibition of arts and industry at Worcester Exhibition Building on Shrub-Hill”

Thousands tramped up the newly patented device just to be able to draw it up after them. Unfortunately its significant, and potentially fatal, flaw became obvious not long after one was fitted in a Worcester factory.

The staircase occasionally jammed and while that was easily fixed in an exhibition setting with experts on hand, out in the commercial world it could create a dangerous fire risk if people were trapped on an upper level with no obvious means of escape.

Needless to say, sales of the ingenious device never got off the ground. 

From the loading dock of the Hill Evans vinegar works in Lowesmoor, Worcester – the UK’s largest in Victorian times – products were despatched to all parts of the world

Such “great exhibitions” were a feature of the Victorian era, started by one in London’s Hyde Park in 1851. Following its success they spread to the provinces and it just so happened Worcester had an ideal venue.

Along Shrub Hill Road lay the former premises of Worcester Engine Company and the West Midlands Wagon Company, a sprawling engine works that lay empty and desolate. Soon it was to spring back to life with a vengeance.

The moulding department of engineering giants Heenan and Froude, which took over the building alongside Shrub Hill Road in 1903, two decades after the Worcestershire Exhibition closed

The old engine fitting shop – a deceptively small name for a space 239ft long, 50ft wide and 30ft high with an iron and glass roof – was chosen as the main court of the exhibition, which in total spread across 54,000sq ft, much greater than most similar  attractions outside the capital.

Victorian workers in the Fownes glove factory, now a hotel on City Walls Road

Wear Fownes gloves while driving your sleigh. Should have had Father Christmas holding the reins

Organisers were spoilt for choice for exhibitors for the city and county had some of the top names of the time: saucemakers Lea and Perrins, Royal Worcester Porcelain, Fownes Gloves, Hill and Evans, the country’s largest vinegar works and McNaught and Co, which made some of the finest horse drawn carriages in the land, to name but some. 

McNaught and Co of Worcester were among the country’s top carriage builders. This is State Coach for the Lord Mayor of London

The exhibition brought Worcestershire people together like never before. On show were old masters from many local collections as well as modern day works by Brook, Leader and others, plus historic relics and documents never previously put on public display. 

On opening day bells were rung, flags were flown and the streets were decorated with streamers and bunting. Crowds lined the roads to watch the great and good of the county arrive and to admire the parading soldiers, brass bands, mayors and other dignitaries. 

The audience at the closing ceremony of the exhibition on October 18, 1882. Showcases of Royal Worcester porcelain can be seen alongside the wall

“It was,” proclaimed the Worcestershire Chronicle, “an occasion of unusual jubilation throughout the city.” Time for another one? There must be a spare building somewhere. Or has the university bought it.