- Ideal Home Show
The Ideal Home Show (formerly called the Ideal Home Exhibition) is an annual event run by the "
Daily Mail " inLondon .Its goal is to bring together everything associated with having an "ideal home", such as the latest inventions for the modern house.
The first exhibition was held in 1908 at the Olympia exhibition centre, with sections dedicated to "phases of home life" such as construction, food and cookery, furniture and decoration. Demonstrations and contests included an Arts and Crafts competition and a competition to design the "Ideal Home".
Wareham Smith , advertising manager of the Daily Mail, founded the exhibition as a marketing event for the newspaper. It was often visited by celebrities and royalty.By the late 20th century the event was criticised for having dropped its educational aims in favour of a solely commercial purpose. Attendance declined but recovered again from the mid 1990s.
2008 saw a massive drop of attendance of the event, exhibits had almost halved as the upper section of Earl's Court 1 was fully closed, despite being the event's 100th birthday.
On their 2008 album the British band
Half Man Half Biscuit released a song entitled "Took Problem Chimp To Ideal Home Show". It contains sardonic lyrics about an imaginary visit to the Ideal Homes Show Exhibition.External links
* [http://www.idealhomeshow.co.uk Official site]
* [http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources/X20L/Themes/1387/1148/ Article, Museum of London]
* [http://www.medfood.co.uk MedFood which is part of the Ideal Home Show]
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