Southbank Centre on London’s South Bank has been granted Grade II listed status
The designation, confirmed by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, places the complex under official protection, safeguarding its architecture and interiors for future generations. As Southbank Centre marks its 75th anniversary, Afisha.London revisits the story of this remarkable cultural landmark.
This article is also available in Russian here
Today the Southbank Centre is widely regarded as one of the most compelling examples of Brutalist architecture in London. Yet public opinion was not always so generous. In the 1960s, readers of the Daily Mail famously voted it “the ugliest building in Britain” — a verdict that speaks as much about the era’s uneasy relationship with modernism as it does about the architecture itself.
The complex as we know it today opened in 1967, designed by a team of architects led by Norman Engleback. Over the decades the site repeatedly faced the threat of demolition. For more than thirty years, campaigners, historians and architectural organisations argued that the ensemble deserved formal protection.
With the granting of Grade II status, the buildings are now recognised as being of “special architectural interest”. Their distinctive layouts, concrete façades and interiors are protected by law.
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A musical beginning
The origins of the complex reach back to 1949, when Prime Minister Clement Attlee laid the foundation stone of the Royal Festival Hall. The concert hall was built for the Festival of Britain in 1951 — a national exhibition intended to signal the country’s recovery after the Second World War and restore a sense of optimism.
King George VI officially opened the hall on 3 May 1951. That evening’s inaugural concert was conducted by two of Britain’s most celebrated maestros: Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm Sargent.
During the 1950s the Royal Festival Hall quickly established itself as one of Europe’s major musical venues. The legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini appeared here to extraordinary demand: nearly 60,000 people reportedly attempted to secure tickets for his concerts. In 1958 the hall welcomed sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar for the first time, beginning a long artistic association with the venue.
A stage for the twentieth century
In 1960 the hall hosted the fifth Eurovision Song Contest — the first to be staged in the United Kingdom. Five years later it became the setting for one of the most poignant musical moments in London’s cultural history: the final London concert of Igor Stravinsky.
At the age of eighty-three, the composer conducted the New Philharmonia Orchestra in a performance of his Firebird Suite. The audience response was so rapturous that the curtain calls only ceased when Stravinsky returned to the stage wearing his coat and hat — a gentle but unmistakable signal that the evening had truly ended.
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The birth of a cultural centre
A new chapter began in 1967, when Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the expanded Southbank Centre. The development introduced several key buildings in the Brutalist style: the Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room.
One of the earliest events captured the experimental spirit of the period. Pink Floyd performed their multimedia concert Games for May, complete with quadraphonic sound and clouds of soap bubbles. The spectacle damaged the hall’s newly installed leather seats, and the band was subsequently banned from performing at Queen Elizabeth Hall until 2016.
During the 1970s an unexpected subculture emerged beneath the complex. The concrete undercroft spaces became a gathering place for skateboarders, eventually evolving into the birthplace of British skateboarding culture.
In 1983 Southbank Centre made a decisive shift in how the space was used: its foyers were opened to the public throughout the day, transforming the complex into a civic meeting place with free exhibitions, performances and cultural events. Five years later the National Poetry Library was established here.
The 1990s brought the Meltdown Festival, a distinctive musical programme curated annually by a different artist. Over the years the festival’s curators have included David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Grace Jones and Patti Smith.
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Queen Elizabeth Hall. Фото: INDIA ROPER-EVANS
Southbank today
In the twenty-first century Southbank Centre has continued to evolve as one of Britain’s most dynamic cultural arenas. It hosts the London Literature Festival, major exhibitions — including Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon — and performances by leading orchestras and musicians from around the world.
One of the most talked-about events of recent years was Michelle Obama’s appearance in 2018, in conversation with the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Nearly 60,000 people attempted to purchase tickets for the event.
Today Southbank Centre remains one of the United Kingdom’s most important cultural spaces — a place where music, art, literature and public life intersect on the banks of the Thames.
Cover photo: Lee Bul at Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre by Morley von Sternberg
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