For over 100 years the Ideal Home Show has been attracting millions of visitors
to its annual exhibition in the capital of the United Kingdom, London. Everything
to do with creating an ‘ideal home’ is on display in this, the largest
home show in the world, which attracts not only visitors from around the UK, but
from Europe and the rest of the world too.
When and Where is the Ideal Home Show?
Ideal Home Show is an annual event, taking place every year in the capital of the
United Kingdom, London. Since 1978 the venue has been the impressive Earls Court
Exhibition Centre which is in West London and easily accessible by public transport.
Usually the Ideal Home Show will take place around March and April time and runs
for several weeks so there’s plenty of opportunity to get along and experience
the ‘show’.
In 2010 the Ideal Home Show will take place from Saturday 20 March to Monday 5 April.
If you’re planning to visit the Ideal Home Show why not combine it with some
sightseeing in London? The capital of England and the United Kingdom, London is
a multi-cultural city with countless tourist attractions, culture, fine dining and
thousands of different places to stay. If you’re looking for some of the most
luxurious hotels (and most expensive) in the world you’ll find them in London,
or at the other end of the scale London is also full of affordable accommodation
too. If you don’t want to stay in London itself choose a town outside of the
city that’s well linked by rail such as Surbiton, Woking, or Reading. Accommodation
may be a little cheaper in these places, but with great rail links you’ll
still be in the capital within half an hour.
What is the Ideal Home Show?
Originally called the Ideal Home Exhibition, the show has been in existence for
over a hundred years and is still going strong!
Today the Ideal Home Show is a massive event and you definitely need a whole day
to make the most of it. It’s a combination of many things that’s evolved
since the first one in 1908, featuring full size replicas of homes on display within
the exhibition space, hundreds of traders selling homewares, and always a focus
on new technology and inventions.
During many years there’s a special feature or theme running throughout the
Show, which you’ll sometimes be hard pushed to see why it has anything to
do with
homes! In 1997 for example, a large area of the exhibition space was
taken up by a rainforest which experienced a real downpour of rain every hour! There
are usually special guest appearances by television personalities whether they are
gardening, decorating, or building experts, plus there’s usually at least
one television programme broadcast from the Show, so you could find yourself on
TV!
The exact specifics for the 2010 Ideal Home Show are yet to be announced but it’s
sure to be a year to remember. Keep an eye on the official Ideal Home Show website
for further information.
A History of the Ideal Home Show
With over 100 years having passed since the inaugural Ideal Home Exhibition (as
it was then called) you may wonder how this annual event remains so popular! But
with so many homeowners around the world the Ideal Home Show is always going to
be popular because people love to make their home look nice and to keep up with
what the latest trends are in home decoration, furnishing, gardening and more, and
the Ideal Home Show allows them to do just that!
The Ideal Home Show was the creation of one of the UK’s most popular newspapers,
the Daily Mail. Advertising manager Wareham Smith came up with the idea as a way
of boosting marketing and reader numbers for the newspaper. Little did he know that
it would still be such a popular event over a hundred years later!
The aim of the Ideal Home Exhibition was to bring together all the elements that
should be associated with having an ‘ideal home’ so there were all the
latest inventions that were must haves for the day’s modern home. Obviously
being 1908 the things that were considered modern then, we would find to be very
archaic these days!
The Ideal Home Show has taken place every year since then, apart from the years
during the Second World War, for obvious reasons, but from 1947 it continued onwards.
It’s always been a place where great new inventions have been seen by the
general public for the first time, like the launching of the first microwave oven
in 1947.
On the 100th year of the Ideal Home Show (2008) visitors had the opportunity to
see some of the highlights from the last 100 years in an exhibit called Century
Street. Seeing all those funny looking old pieces of equipment must have been very
interesting!