Empress Hall, Earl's Court Architect's Plan 1948

An architect's plan for the ground floor of Empress Hall, Earl's Court, for the gymnastics competitions held at the London 1948 Olympic Games, drawn at very short notice, for reasons explained below, by J.E.M. for Earls Court Ltd in August 1948

The following information regarding gymnastics at the Games appears in the 1948 Official Report: Two major decisions had to be reached over the gymnastic events. The inclusion of women's events, which had been queried by the Organising Committee, was agreed upon by the I.O.C. at their 1947 Congress, subject to a minimum of six nations indicating that they would be represented, and to the contest being confined to a team event.

The International Federation were most anxious that the gymnastic events should be held in the main stadium. The A.G.A. counselled that this was inadvisable, due to the uncertainty of the English climate, as the main stadium inevitably meant open-air competition.

The I.O.C. supported the International Federation and the mornings and afternoons of three days of the last week of the Games were allocated to gymnastics at the Empire Stadium.

The major difficulty was that the clearing of the Stadium in readiness for the Hockey and football semi-finals, which were fixed for the evening sessions of those days, necessitated the closure of the gymnastic session by 4 p.m.

Due to torrential rains on the day and night preceding the start of the gymnastics, the whole programme had to be postponed at a moment's notice until the last three days of Games when it was possible to occupy the Empress Hall.

The consequent strain upon the box office administration was severe. However, as three sessions were available each day at the Empress Hall, and as the men's and women's events were run simultaneously, the competitions were concluded by mid-day on Saturday.