Festival of Speed is our longest-standing Motorsport event, starting in 1993 when it opened to 25,00 people. We were expecting 2000!
Our replica of the famous motor show showcases the "cars of the future" in true Revival style
Whoa Simon! A horse so determined and headstrong, he not only won the 1883 Goodwood Cup by 20 lengths, but couldn't be stopped and carried on running over the top of Trundle hill
The Motor Circuit was known as RAF Westhampnett, active from 1940 to 1946 as a Battle of Britain station.
Goodwood’s pigs are a mix of two rare breeds (Gloucester Old Spots and Saddlebacks) plus the Large White Boar.
Testament to the 19th-century fascination with ancient Egypt and decorative opulence. The room is richly detailed with gilded cartouches, sphinxes, birds and crocodiles.
As the private clubhouse for all of the Estate’s sporting and social members, it offers personal service and a relaxed atmosphere
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
Every single item from plates to pictures has its own home within the Lodge, with our butler (James) has his own "bible" to reference exactly what is out of place.
Easy boy! The charismatic Farnham Flyer loved to celebrate every win with a pint of beer. His Boxer dog, Grogger, did too and had a tendancy to steal sips straight from the glass.
Found on the lawn at FOS is the finest concours d'elegance in the world, where the most beautiful cars are presented
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
Our replica of the famous motor show showcases the "cars of the future" in true Revival style
From 2005 to present there has been a demonstration area for the rally cars at the top of the hill
Just beyond Goodwood House along the Hillclimb, the 2nd Dukes banqueting house was also known as "one of the finest rooms in England" (George Vertue 1747).
From 2005 to present there has been a demonstration area for the rally cars at the top of the hill
Our replica of the famous motor show showcases the "cars of the future" in true Revival style
One Summer, King Edward VII turned his back on the traditional morning suit, and donned a linen suit and Panama hat. Thus the Glorious Goodwood trend was born.
One Summer, King Edward VII turned his back on the traditional morning suit, and donned a linen suit and Panama hat. Thus the Glorious Goodwood trend was born.
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
The first ever horsebox was used from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St. Leger. Elis arrived fresh and easily won his owner a £12k bet.
Whoa Simon! A horse so determined and headstrong, he not only won the 1883 Goodwood Cup by 20 lengths, but couldn't be stopped and carried on running over the top of Trundle hill
The red & yellow of the Racecourse can be traced back hundreds of years, even captured in our stunning Stubbs paintings in the Goodwood Collection
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
For the last two years, 5,800 bales have been recylced into the biomass energy centre to be used for energy generation
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
A 20m woodland rue, from Halnaker to Lavant, was planted by our forestry teams & volunteers, featuring native species like oak, beech, & hornbeam
Inspired by the legendary racer, Masten Gregory, who famously leapt from the cockpit of his car before impact when approaching Woodcote Corner in 1959.
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
The first thing ever dropped at Goodwood was a cuddly elephant which landed in 1932 just as the 9th Duke of Richmonds passion for flying was taking off.
Flying jetpacks doesn't have to just be a spectator sport at FOS, you can have a go at our very own Aerodrome!
Head Butler David Edney has worked at Buckingham Palace taking part in Dinner Parties for the then Duke of Richmond and the Queen.
Built in 1787 by celebrated architect James Wyatt to house the third Duke of Richmond’s prized fox hounds, The Kennels was known as one of the most luxurious dog houses in the world!
Ensure you take a little time out together to pause and take in the celebration of all the hard work you put in will be a treasured memory.
The red & yellow of the Racecourse can be traced back hundreds of years, even captured in our stunning Stubbs paintings in the Goodwood Collection
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
Built in 1787 by celebrated architect James Wyatt to house the third Duke of Richmond’s prized fox hounds, The Kennels was known as one of the most luxurious dog houses in the world!
A 20m woodland rue, from Halnaker to Lavant, was planted by our forestry teams & volunteers, featuring native species like oak, beech, & hornbeam
Inspired by the legendary racer, Masten Gregory, who famously leapt from the cockpit of his car before impact when approaching Woodcote Corner in 1959.
We have been host to many incredible film crews using Goodwood as a backdrop for shows like Downton Abbey, Hollywood Blockbusters like Venom: let there be Carnage and the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Easy boy! The charismatic Farnham Flyer loved to celebrate every win with a pint of beer. His Boxer dog, Grogger, did too and had a tendancy to steal sips straight from the glass.
Built in 1787 by celebrated architect James Wyatt to house the third Duke of Richmond’s prized fox hounds, The Kennels was known as one of the most luxurious dog houses in the world!
Built in 1787 by celebrated architect James Wyatt to house the third Duke of Richmond’s prized fox hounds, The Kennels was known as one of the most luxurious dog houses in the world!
With its streamlined automobiles and sci-fi cityscapes, the 1939 New York World’s Fair gave visitors a vivid sense of stepping into the future. Eighty years on, it still provides a fascinating vision of tomorrow’s world, yesterday.
Words by Oliver Bennett
It had a 65-foot statue of George Washington and a seven foot robot called “Elektro the Moto-Man” that smoked cigarettes. There was an “Arctic Girl in her Tomb of Ice”, while trilby-clad voyeurs furtively queued up to enter the “Living Magazine Covers” stand where, for a small fee, they could photograph topless burlesque models in mock-ups of popular magazine covers of the era.
In so many ways, then, yesterday’s world. But 80 years ago, the New York World’s Fair of 1939 was the most cutting edge place on the planet. This was the future, right down to its stargazing slogans like “Dawn of a New Day” and “The World of Tomorrow”, and architectural fixtures such as the skyward-reaching 700ft Trylon. Looking at it now is to see a cityscape like a celestial chessboard, as if Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis had been brought to life. It tore up the old brick-and-tenement American city and helped everyone forget the calamitous Great Depression. Like our own Millennium Dome, the World’s Fair was about renewal. Even the site of the fair, Corona Park in Queens, NY, had formerly been a huge refuse-burning operation – the inspiration for the “valley of ashes” in F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , itself a symbol of the transition to an American future.
A journey of imagination across time and space
But the World’s Fair had another vast claim: it ushered in the age of the automobile at a time when there was no freeway system and few people owned a car. Of all its various zones – Communications, Food, Business Systems – it was the Transportation Zone that really grabbed the public attention. Detroit’s Big Three – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler – certainly saw a huge opportunity in the Fair. Ford’s pavilion was the biggest, “a journey of imagination across time and space” that included “The Road of Tomorrow”, an elevated cork and rubber highway. But it was arguably General Motors that took the gold medal, because it had a key weapon in Norman Bel Geddes. An ex-theatre designer and automotive visionary known as the father of “streamlining”, Bel Geddes’ concept – outlined in his 1932 book Horizons – was to design cars as sleek as seals, and his Futurama exhibit showed how in the impossibly distant year of 1960, these objects of desire might travel along shimmering multilane superhighways, above cities as well as through them. As architectural historian Adnan Morshed wrote in a paper about the exhibit, Bel Geddes’ designs “prophesied an American utopia”. Adding to the considerable “gee-whiz” factor, visitors looked down upon the Futurama model from a conveyor belt. No wonder it was the fair’s most visited attraction.
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Then there were the individual cars, including vehicles that still induce gasps today. Among them was the so-called “ghost car”, a Pontiac Deluxe Six clad in Plexiglas; a 1939 Plymouth P8 Deluxe with a clear acrylic top; and a Delahaye Type 165 Cabriolet. Most importantly, a streamlined transcontinental bus gave visitors a luxurious taste of how they’d get around the country in the future – complete with dining section and panoramic observation lounge.
Some 45 million people attended. The writer EL Doctorow captured some of its dizzying sense of vertigo in his 1985 novel, World’s Fair : “What was small had become big; the scale had enlarged and you were no longer looking down at it, but standing in it, on this corner of the future, right here in the World’s Fair!” At the end of the fair, visitors were given a badge bearing the message: “I have seen the future.” Yet you may have noticed those baleful dates. Within six months of the fair, World War II started. Quite apart from the cataclysmic events, the whole idea of progress was tainted. The Polish statue of King Jagiello and the French staff remained exiled as their countries were occupied. Big Joe, the 79-foot steel statue on the Soviet Union Pavilion, also looked somewhat tarnished. And as the years developed, the ideas of the ideal urban environment changed, too. In 1962, a New York Times writer said, somewhat ruefully, that the fair had “proved its point so well that the whole countryside is a Futurama now”. There’s still a time capsule, prepared by the electrical company Westinghouse, which is due to be opened in the properly impossible year of 6939 (the 5000th anniversary), bearing camera film, a razor, a packet of cigarettes and a dollar in change.
It’s easy, perhaps, to deride outdated symbols of modernity, but every generation conjures up fresh visions of the future – which is why the robotics or space technology at Futurelab has become an integral part of Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Nor does our taste for futures past appear to be abating: in 2011 that Plexiglas-bodied Pontiac sold for $308,000.
This article was taken from the Spring 2019 edition of the Goodwood Magazine.
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