The So

uth

Ban

k Ce

ntr

e

CONTE

NT

Introduction

The Southbank Today

The Royal Festival Hall

Queen Elizabeth Hall

The Hayward Gallery

The Walkaways

Fail or Success?

Notes and Bibliography

01

03

07

10

12

13

16

23

29

33

38

40

The Festival of Britain

The Southbank in 1951

The Festival Design

Modern British Architecture and

the Festival of Britain

01

The Southbank Centre is Europe’s

largest centre for arts. It manages a

85,000 m² site and includes the Royal

Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth

Hall and the Hayward Gallery as main

attractions, as well as the Purcell

Room, Saison Poetry Library, Jubilee

Gardens and The Queen’s Walk.

More than three million people

visit the site annually and nearly a

thousand performances of music,

dance and literature are staged at the

venue. In addition, three to six major

art exhibitions are presented at the

Hayward Gallery every year.

The Southbank is an increasingly

important area of London. Its unique

riverside position in the heart of the

city gives an enormous potential

to the site. It has Westminster

Bridge and London Eye as western

neighbours and Tate Modern and

the new Shakespeare’s Globe as

eastern. It is only meters away from

Waterloo and Embankment stations.

But London’s South Bank was not

always a hub of cultural activity.

After the war a visitor would have

found no concrete halls, theatres or

art cinemas – its attractions were

limited to a hulking Victorian brewery,

a prominent brick chimney and a sea

of mud. But then, in 1951, came a

cultural event far more ambitious in

its way than even the forthcoming

London Olympics, which re-made its

own part of London. [1]

Intr

oductio

n

The Festival of Britain was a national

exhibition in Britain that took place

between May and September of

1951. It was conceived as an event

to commemorate the centenary

of The Great Exhibition of 1851

and to celebrate the history,

achievements and potential of the

Britain people. It was organised by

the government to give Britons a

feeling of recovery in the aftermath

of war. The Festival was a practical

expression of the ideas shaping

reconstruction after WWII. At the

same time, the Festival was offered

as a moment of light relief, a king

of national village fete. The Labour

Party government minister Herbert

Morrison, responsible for the

event, described it as “a tonic for

the nation”. The first proposal for

a post-war and celebratory festival

was made at meeting of the Royal

Society of Arts, London, in 1943.

Gerald Barry, editor of the News

Chronicle, took up in an open letter

to Sir Stafford Cripps, President of

the Board of Trade in 1945. Barry’s

first proposal was for an international

event styled on the traditional trade

fair. A government committee under

the chairmanship of Lord Ramsden

discussed this possibility at some

length before deciding against it on

grounds of costs. The deputy Prime

Minister, Herbert Morrison took up

the proposal and began to promote

the idea of “a national festival that

displayed the British contribution to

civilisation, past, present and future,

in the arts, science and industrial

design”. The proposal received cross-

party support and it was granted a

budget of £12 million.

Complex problems, caused by

external events, consistently strained

budgets and materials.

The years preceding the Festival

had been difficult ones. There were

sterling crises at regular intervals and

the economics of devaluation played

themselves out through

shortages of the most basic

commodities in construction: labour

and materials. The choice of a main

site for the Festival was soon made.

There was an area of bomb-damaged

land between Waterloo Bridge and

County Hall, on London’s South

Bank. The site had one important

advantage: it was central and close

to Waterloo. This proximity to central

London assured immediate and

convenient transport links to the

Festival. In addition, the widespread

use of electric trains from Waterloo

greatly reduced the blight of smoke

and soot usually associated with

railways. This enhanced the potential

of the open spaces at the South

Bank. The riverside promenade could,

in consequence, become a central

feature of the Festival site.[2]

The only disadvantage of the site was

the limited access from the north

bank of the Thames. This problem

was solved by the creation of a

Festival Gateway in Northumberland

Avenue and a direct access to the site

across a Bailey bridge. The buildings,

exhibits and planning of the South

Bank were conceived to provide a

vivid template for the reconstruction

of Britain. The whole was a

Modernist architectural expression

of materials, technology and

engineering. The austere utilitarian

provisions of WWII were replaced

by a sophisticated integration of art,

design and architecture. Modern

architecture, in its most logically

coherent form, eschewed all forms

of decoration in favour of functional

utility and material integrity.

A view of The Southbank in 1951:

The Dome of Discovery and

The Festival Hall.

Photo by Getty Images.

03

The resulting autonomy of

architecture, in relation to the other

arts, became the default for aspiring

radicals working in other fields.

In consequence, the attempt to

integrate art and architecture became

more a process of positioning one

in relation to the other. The difficulty

of creating a coherently Modernist

and, at the same time, festive

experience across the South Bank

became the major problem facing

the Design Group. One of the most

appealing characteristics of the South

Bank site was the chance it gave

to promenade along the Thames

and between buildings. The idea of

promenading was taken from the

holiday spirit of the English seaside

and of the earlier entertainments at

Vauxhall Gardens and elsewhere. The

psychological benefits of this access-

all-areas approach should not be

underestimated. It marked a crucial

change from the securityrestrictions

on movement imposed during WWII.

At the time, the river was still an

industrial highway with levels of

traffic far beyond what we see today.

The air quality in London remained

poor (in 1952 the smog killed over

4000 people) and called into question

the kinds of outdoor leisure acitivities

promoted as a continental-style

café-culture. The promotion of a

democratic Thames-side promenade

must have seemed almost

unimaginably sophisticated in 1951.

The Festival of Britain

05

The love of concrete, so flexible, so durable,so easy and cheap to produce, inspiredcreative architects, but most were frustrated by planners and developers who thought good taste was to do with shrimp cocktails.

Barry Turner about The Festival of Britain architecture.

The Dome of Discovery. The largest building on the South Bank. This fl at, fl ying saucer shaped structure presented a narrative of scientifi c exploration across various scientifi c contexts.Photo by Getty Images.

The SouthBank platforms: designed to give the cold and grey river an air of promenading.Photo by Getty Images.

The Festival Royal. The centrepiece of the Festival of Britain and the only building that wasn’t demolished after 1951. Photo by Getty Images.

The Southbank in 1951

The Sea and Ships Pavilion designed by Basil Spence was a particularly diffi cult brief as the structure had to accommodate some very large exhibitions.Photo by Getty Images.

The Skylon was a piece of architectural sculpture created as a vertical feature on the riverfront of the SouthBank.Photo by Getty Images.

08

10The Festival encouraged the

development of an architectural

style that was both substantial

and light-hearted. The exemplars

of seaside and village fête were

discreetly on hand throughout.

One example of this can be found

in the use of bunting thoughout

the site and on the Festival

emblem. The design of one of

the most remarkable features

of the Festival, the Skylon, also

illustrates the sense of intelligent

gaiety that the Design Group were

intent on promoting, Quite apart

from its ingenuity, the Skylon

was a reminder of the exciting

sculptural potential of an

sculptural potential of an

architectural jeu d’esprit. The

temporary nature of the Festival

also helps to explain the Design

Group to its buildings. The group

knew that all the buildings on

the South Bank site, with the

exception of the Festival Hall,

would be demolished after

five months. It was sensible,

therefore, to think of the buildings

as temporary pavilions.[3]

12

After the Second World War, Britain

possessed neither the material

resources not the necessary

cultural assurance to justify any

form of monumental expression.

If anything the post-war tendency

lay in the opposite direction, since

in architecture, as in other matters,

Britain was in the final stages of

relinquishing its imperial identity.

Post-war social reconstruction gained

its first impetus from two important

Parliamentary Acts: the Education

Act of 1944, raising the school

leaving age to fifteen, and the

New Town Act of 1946.

This legislation was the effective

instrument of an extensive

government building programme,

resulting in the construction of some

2,5000 schools within a decade and

in the designation of ten new towns.

The syntax of this style of using

basic and simple materials - which

was presumably considered to be

sufficiently ‘popular’ for the realization

of English social reform – comprised

an architecture of shallow-pitched

roofs, brick walls, vertically boarded

spandrels and squarish wood-framed

picture windows, the latter either left

bare or painted white. The Festival

of Britain in 1951 served to give

this undemanding cultural policy a

progressive and modern dimension

by parodying the heroic iconography

of the Soviet Constructivists. Its two

most potent symbols, the Skylon

by Phillip Powel and John hidalgo

Moya, and the Dome of Discovery

by Ralph Tubbs, represented nothing

more consequential through their

structural rhetoric than the ‘circus’ of

life for which presumably the ‘bread’

was soon to be provided. It was not

that the exhibition was not without

content, but that its content was

presented in a gratuitious manner.[4]

13

The SOUTH

BANK TODAY

The Southbank Centre today

occupies a 21-acres area and it is

one of London’s most vibrant cultural

quarters. Every year, thousands of

people visit the place to relax with a

glass of wine on the Festival Terrace,

wander through the Royal Festival

Hall foyers, take part in one of

hundreds of free events, enjoy a meal

from an array of cafes and restaurants

built recently or browse the shops

and markets. The annual festival

theme for 2012 is called Alchemy.

It involves music, performance,

literature, fashion and design

connections between Bangladesh,

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UK.

The BFI cinema and the National

Theatre, although not part of the

Southbank Centre, adds an extra

cultural dose to the surroundings.

THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL

The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900 seat

concert, dance and talks venue within

Southbank Centre in London. It is a

Grade I listed building - the First post-

war building to become protected

in 1981. The London Philharmonic

Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra

perform the majority of their London

concerts in the hall.The building

was the centerpiece of the Festival

of Britain. This concert venue was

conceived as a replacement venue

for the Queen’s Hall. Its scale and

the obvious permanence of its

design and execution allowed it to

dominate the whole site. The hall’s

design is unashamedly Modernist,

the Festival’s commissioning

architect (Hugh Casson) having taken

the decision to appoint only young

architects. The architects for the Hall

were the London County Council’s

team led by Leslie Martin, Robert

Matthew and Peter Moro. The

Festival Hall was the first major public

building to be completed in London

since before the WWII. Its completion

was therefore symbolic of a renewed

commitment to the cultural life of the

capital. This commitment was further

emphasized by some of the technical

and functional characteristics of the

new building. The acoustic quality

of the hall and the comfort of the

audience were prioritized, providing

a state-of-the-art venue. In fact, the

impression given by the arrangement

of elements and their specifications

was entirely positive: there were

no poor seats in the auditorium,

the structure allowed for clear sight

lines to the stage from every part

of the hall. The implication of this,

particularly in relation to the

Royal Box, was obviously egalitarian.

The second characteristic of the hall

was the absence of crushed interval

areas around the approaches and

exits to the auditorium. By placing

the main concert space in the centre

of the building and surrounding

it on all sides with public spaces

the architects achieved two

objectives: the size of the hall

was the maximum possible for

the accommodated by the relative

spaciousness of the supporting

areas around the building. These

spaces were an instant success and

the Festive Hall quickly became a

social meeting place as much as

a concert venue. The foyer area,

arranged on levels that matched

the raked seating of the auditorium,

provided interestingly varied social

spaces with a wide range of

perspectives.[5] The large windows

and balcony platforms further

enhanced the general feeling of

comfortable openness. The pleasing

ambiguities of inside and outside

were made possible by the whole

structure being supported principally

by the steel frame enclosing the

auditorium. The widespread use of

large-scale plants within the interior

again distinguished this space as

both modern and comfortable.

THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 16

The building was substantially

altered in 1964 by adding the foyers

and terraces to the river side of the

building and more dressing rooms to

the rear. Alterations to the facades

facing the river removed the playful

Scandinavian Modernism of the

building’s primary public face in

favour of a plainer and hard-edged

style. The building’s original entrance

sequence was much compromised by

these changes and the later additions

of raised concrete walkways around

the building to serve the neighbouring

Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room

and The Hayward, built in 1967/8 and

also part of Southbank Centre.

experience of the acoustic from the

stage perspective, some audience

members report disappointment that

renovations have failed to improve

the acoustics of the hall, largely due

to conservation imperatives which

are noted by the acoustic developers.

20

The building underwent a renovation

between 2005 and 2007, led by

Allies and Morrison Architects. The

renovation aimed at improving the

poor acoustics production access

and flexibility of the auditorium and

the general quality of fabric, entrance

spaces and cafe and the layouts of the

foyers. The interior of the concert hall

space was almost entirely intact until

this re-modelling, which saw its stage

canopy and walls rebuilt in plainer more

rectangular forms. This was carried

out in the face of opposition from

conservationists, led by the Twentieth

Century Society. While musicians

report improvements in their own

21

23

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is the second largest concert hall on Southbank

Centre site, hosting chamber orchestras, quartets, choirs, dance performances

and opera. The Queen Elizabeth Hall also contains two smaller venues, the

Purcell Room and the Front Room. It attracts over 3 million visitors per year

and it is the home of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the London

Philharmonic Orchestra. It also welcomes top ensembles, conductors and

soloists from around the world. The building has over 900 seats and the Pucell

Room, a most intimate concert hall venue, has 360 seats. The two auditoriums

were built together by Higgs and Hill, a major British construction company

responsible for some of London’s finest buildings. The building was completed

and opened in March 1967.

Queen elizabeth hall

Brutalism was in vogue at the time

of the construction of the Queen

Elizabeth Hall. The architecture

style flourished from the 1950s

to the mid 1970s and it spawned

from the modernist architectural

movement. The term Brustalism

was originated by architects Alison

and Peter Smithson from the French

‘béton brut’, or ‘raw concrete’.

The term was used by father of

modernist Le Corbusier to describe

the poured board-marked concrete

which he constructed many of his

post-World War II buildings. This

trend in architecture was both striking

and arresting and, perhaps like no

other style before or since, aroused

extremes of emotion and debate.

Some regarded Brutalist buildings

as monstrous, soulless structures of

concrete, steel and glass, whereas

others saw the genre as logical

progression, having its own grace and

balance. It was perhaps inevitable at

the time that Queen Elizabeth Hall

architecture should be represented by

grey concrete slabs. The design team

reserved their imagination for the

interior while the façades were cold

and uninviting.[6]

It is almost as if they saw culture as the equivalent of foul-tasting medicine: you had to sufferbefore it did any good.Barry Turner about the Brutalism style.

What was intended to be part of the Brutalism style became one of the most

entertaining areas of London for young people. Located in the undercroft of

the Queen Elizabeth, the Skate Park is one of the most distinctive and colourful

locations at the South Bank Centre. Skaters adopted the area in the early 1970s

and later on the place was also taken over by graffiti lovers.

The spot was threatened with closure in 2008 for retail development, but it

was saved with encouragement from the British government. In the same

year, in order to revitalise the spot, The South Bank Centre commissioned

South African artist Robin Rhode to paint a mural, but 24 hours later the art was

painted over by ‘taggers’.

“It’s a leftover space no one

knew what to do with and the

skateboarders have transformed it. If

they weren’t there, it would be dead.

It wouldn’t be any space. It would be

a space to go and get mugged” said

Rich Holland, a skateboarder in that

frequents Skate Park since he was

12 on a interview to the newspaper

The Guardian.

27

The HAYWARD GALLERY

Together with the Queen

Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell

Room, the construction company

Higgs and Hill also built The

Hayward Gallery. Opened by Her

Majesty The Queen on 9 July

1968, the gallery is also a typical

example of Brutalist architecture,

made of raw concrete with hard

angles and hard shapes. It was

designed by a group of young

architects including Dennis

Crompton, Warren Chalk and Ron

Herron. The Hayward Gallery is

named after the late Sir Isaac

Hayward, the former leader of the

London County Council.There are

two levels of indoor galleries and

three outdoor sculpture courts.

The Hayward Gallery is known for

hosting shows of contemporary

and historical art. In 2011,

thousands of people visit the

gallery to see the work of

eccentric British artist Tracey

Emin in one of the most popular

exhibitions hosted by the gallery.

This year, it’s time for David

Shrigley to attract visitors to the

Hayward. It is Shrigley’s first

major survey exhibition in the

UK and covers the full range of

his work, extending beyond his

drawings to include photography,

taxidermy, sculpture, animation,

paintings in addition, Shringley

presents a number od new

work created especially for

Hayward Gallery, all of which are

characterised by their varied use

of humour.

The gallery façade promotes its current

exhibition Brain Activity, by British Artist

David Shringley.

The HAYWARD GALLERY 30

31

31

33

The walkaways

33

My first visit to the Southbank

Centre was in 2007, when I had

just moved to London. I had an

appointment inside the coffee shop

of the Hayward Gallery at 3pm. I got

to Waterloo station at 3 on the dot.

It took me about 40 minutes to get

to the Hayward Gallery. I could see

the building from Waterloo bridge,

but to actually get to the door of the

gallery it was necessary to go up

the staircases of the Royal Festival

towards the river Thames, cross the

Festival terrace and go up another

staircase on the back of the Royal

Festival Building. I was completely

lost. Since then, a lot has been done

to help pedestrians find their way to

the Southbank venues: the staircases

are now painted with bright colours.

There are also numbers on their

surface to help visualise them on

the map. A long staircase is being

build to connect Waterloo station

to Hayward Gallery directly. It is

definitely helping the pedestrian,

but visitors still complain about the

unsafe feel of the walkaways and

the bad smell of urine that the place

has. Even the Metropolitan Police

blame the architecture for the high

crime rates of the place. The South

Bank Centre was the first chunk in

a fantasy-brutalist multilevel city.

But its circulation plan is primarily

experimental, not functional.

The navigation for the general public is dire. Signage is poor and key parts of the site feel disconnected from each other.Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph Journalist

36

37

FAIL OR SUCCESSS?

Sixty years later, the Southbank divides opinions on whether it is a successful

venue or not. The site has been through dozes of repairs and renovations,

but some architects believe it is still not there yet. In 1991, on the fortieth

anniversary of the Festival, Hugh Casson asked ‘what other city would

stomach the squalid approaches to the South Bank’, while Simon Jenkins, now

chairman of the National Trust, then editor of The Times, declared the site to

be ‘derelict in thought and fact… a monument to indecision’. A competition

to select an architect to transform the 1960s buildings was won by Richard

Rogers Partnership. Appointed masterplanners for the SouthBank Centre in

September 1994, the project was managed by Ivan Harbour. Well aware that

public affection for brutalism was with the idea but that demolition was not

an option, he came up with the idea of building a canopy – a Crystal Palace

– over the Hayward and Queen Elizabeth Hall to soften the concrete effect

and create a friendlier, more intimate environment. This would also free up

otherwise unused space for all the year-round cultural events. [7] It was a brave

and imaginative concept that had much of the Festival about it, encouraging

visitors to ‘arrive early and stay late’, in good or bad weather. With economy in

poor shape, the mid-1990s was not a good time for grand schemes. Whether

architects like it or not, the South Bank Centre seems to be loved by the

general public. The place receives millions of visitors a year and the Londoners

are proud of its modernist and brutalism architecture. I was lucky the weather

in London was wonderful – 33 degrees – while I was doing this project. I had

the chance to have a glass of wine sitting at the Festival Terrace and admire

the view of the Thames. I even think that the not so perfect constructions add

some kind of coolness to the area, now frequented by young people who are

interested in a large range of artistic genres – from classical music to pop art.

The SouthBank Centre has definitely an especial atmosphere.

37

Credits

AuthorStephania Abrantes da SilveiraLondon College of CommunicationPg Dip Design for Visual CommunicationTutor: Tony Pritchard

Photosby Stephania Abrantes da SilveiraColour: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ45EBK (Digital)B&W: Pentax K1000 (Analogic)

PaperUncoated 300gm - Bookbinders of LondonStrathmore Grandee Charcoal 270gm - GF Smith

Printed and Binded by:Bookbinders of London

TypefacesUnivers Designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954.Lutz HeadlineDesigned by Cornel Windlin in 1993/1997

Barry Turner (2011). Beacon for Change. London: Aurum Press. 1- 252.

Paul Rennie (2007). Festival of Britain 1951 (Design). London: Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd. 1-128.

Academy (1994). Designing the Future of the South Bank. London: John Wiley & Sons . 10-32.

Simon Sadler (2005). Archigram: Architecture without Architecture . London: MIT Press. 30-31.

Kenneth Frampton (2007). Modern Architecture: A Critical History (World of Art) . London: Thames & Hudson. 252-262.

Alexander Clement (2011). Brutalism: Post-War British Architecture. London: The Crowood Press Ltd. 6-9.

The Southbank Centre. (1998). Visitor Indo. Available: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visitor-info. Last accessed 18th April 2012.

George Perkin. (1968). Concrete Quarterly. Available: http://www.concretecentre.com/PDF/cq_078.PDF. Last accessed 18th April 2012.

Hartswood Films. (2010). SouthBank Skate Park. Available: http://www.sherlockology.com/locations/south-bank-skate-park. Last accessed 18th April 2012.

Dominic Cavendish. (2009). The South Bank Centre: look at the state of it. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/dominiccavendish/5893118/

The-South-Bank-Centre-look-at-the-state-of-it.html. Last accessed 18th April 2012.

Wikipedia. (2012). Festival of Britain. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_of_Britain. Last accessed 18th April 2012.

Notes an

d Bibliography

books

Bibliography

websites

1. Barry Turner, Beacon for Change. Aurum Press. Preface

2. Paul Rennie, Festival of Britain Design. Antique Collectors’ Club.

3. Paul Rennie, Festival of Britain Design. Antique Collectors’ Club.

4. Kenneth Frampton. Modern Architecture: A Critical History (World of Art) .Thames & Hudson. 252-262.

5. Paul Rennie, Festival of Britain Design. Antique Collectors’ Club.

6. Alexander Clement. Brutalism: Post-War British Architecture. The Crowood Press Ltd. 6-9.

7.Barry Turner, Beacon for Change. Aurum Press. Preface

NOTES