One 1951 Festival ….a sliding Doors Moment …. and Mr. Feinstein of New York and New Haven

I have no recollection of the Festival of Britain.

Cover to the Guide Book, 1951

Somewhere beyond the Festival buildings was me, 1951

It was held in the summer of 1951 and looking at this picture postcard taken from across the River beyond the Festival buildings and out into southeast London will be me.

I was just 20 months old, and we were living on Lausanne Road in Peckham

But given that it was summer, dad would have been working away and whether mum went on her own or with me I have no idea, and the passage of time has obliterated any chance of finding out.

My Wikipedia tells me that “The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair held throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. 

Funded chiefly by the government at a cost of £12 million, it was intended to give the British public a sense of recovery and progress after the devastation of the Second World War, and to promote British science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts. 

It proved immensely popular, with more than ten million paid admissions to its six main exhibitions, and helped reshape British arts, crafts and design for a generation”. *

Within a decade of its opening, I was wandering the former site as a curious young kid with heaps of spare time, and later still as a teenager I would be drawn to the Royal Festival Hall and a host of concerts.

The Hall was opened in May 1951 and was part of the Festival of Britain.

Festival collection, 1951

The Skylon, 1951

At which point it would be easy to slide into telling the Festival’s story but there are very good accounts already in print as well as documentaries and that wonderful 1956 film The Long Arm which starred Jack Hawkins and featured the Festival Hall still shinny and new.

So, I shall be content with more images drawn from the back catalogue of Tuck and Sons picture
postcards of the Festival and instead wander off on a Sliding Doors moment which as every one knows who has seen the 1998 film of the same name, explores the idea that there can be mundane but pivotal moments which hold the possibility of a change in the course of a person's life.

Mr. Feinstien's offer, 1951

Now I don’t want to over exaggerate the Sliding Doors moment but contained in those Tuck cards was one addressed to a John Quinn of 271 New Litchfield Street, Torrington, Connecticut with an invite to visit “our store” to see “the distinguished collection of new woollen and gentleman’s accessories for 1951”.

The card was post marked London and dated August 29th, 1951.

And of course I was drawn in, but there began the problem, because the handwriting was bad and at first it was impossible to decipher Mr. Quinn’s address and I was forced back on a search of all streets in Torrington beginning with the word New, which proved to be a success, and gave me New Litchfield Street.

271 New Litchfield Street, Torrington, 2019

Armed with the address, Google Maps provided a street and a house.  

Now I can’t be sure that number 271 in 2019 is indeed the same property which Mr. Quinn occupied sixty-eight years earlier, but if it was, he was living in a three-storey timber clad house set in its own grounds, and surrounded by other houses of a similar design.

The curious in me is tempted to dig further into the story of Torrington, write to the town council and ask for assistance, and maybe I will strike lucky.

Torrington is a former mill town along the Naugatuck River Valley with a population of 35,000 which is just 6,000 more than when Mr. Quinn called it home.  

It has a Republican Mayor, can claim thirteen sites on the National Register of Historic Places and a water course called the Gulf Steam which rises in the Appalachian Mountain region of Torrington.  Added to which amongst its list of notable people is the abolitionist, John Brown.

All of which is worthy of more research and is not bad for a Sliding Doors Moment.

But I was puzzeled as to why Mr. Quinns’ picture postcard was over printed with the name Fenn Feinstein with offices at 9 E. 49th Street., New York and 264 York Street., New Haven on what was a bog-standard card printed in England. 

But the answer lies in the name of the man who sent the picture post card.  

He was Jack Feinstein and according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum the “Frank Brothers was a prestigious New York City retailer and custom tailoring establishment that reached its peak influence in the mid-20th century. ”.**

264 York Street, New Haven, 2025

Of which there is more but for that you will have to follow the link.

Alas their New York store has gone but the New Haven one is still there and is an elegant building reflecting the firm’s stature as a business dealing in the “sophisticated and sometimes flamboyant Ivy League style, the brand was often associated with high-end menswear alongside names like Brooks Brothers and Dunhill. 

The firm was recognized for its custom-tailored suits and high-quality ready-to-wear items, including footwear and silk shirts.” **

Leaving me just to observe that while the postage stamp was removed, I can offer up one from another picture card posted the day before and bound for Belgium.

Location, London, 1951, Torrington, 2019 and New Haven, 2025

Postage stamps for the sending, 1951

Pictures; The Festival of Britain emblem, designed by Abram Games, from the cover of the South Bank Exhibition Guide, 1951, the collection of picture postcards of the Festival of Britain from Tuck and Sons, courtesy of DB Tuck, https://www.tuckdbpostcards.org/, and 271 New Litchfield Street Torrington, Connecticut, 2019, and 264 York Street., New Haven 2025, courtesy of Google Maps

*The Festival of Britain, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_of_Britain

** John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, https://jfk.artifacts.archives.gov/people/3552/frank-brothers--fenn-feinstein/objects