Southbank Centre


Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames.
It comprises three main performance venues, together with the Hayward Gallery, and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracted 4,451,934 visitors during 2018. Over two thousand paid performances of music, dance and literature are staged at Southbank Centre each year, as well as over two thousand free events and an education programme, in and around the performing arts venues. In addition, three to six major art exhibitions are presented at Hayward Gallery yearly, and National Touring Exhibitions reach over 100 venues across the UK.

Location

Southbank Centre's site, which formerly extended to 21 acres from County Hall to Waterloo Bridge, is fronted by The Queen’s Walk. In 2012 management of Jubilee Gardens transferred to the Jubilee Gardens Trust and the car park on the remaining land beyond Hungerford Bridge was sold in 2013, to extend the gardens as part of the Shell Centre redevelopment. The site is next to the National Theatre and BFI Southbank, but does not include them.
The closest Underground stations are Waterloo and Embankment.

Personnel

Susan Gilchrist became chairman of the Board of Governors of the Southbank Centre in 2016, having first joined the Board in 2008. Elaine Bedell was appointed as Chief Executive in 2017; from 2009 to 2016 that position was held by Alan Bishop, former chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi International and Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information.
September 2005 saw the arrival of Jude Kelly as the centre's Artistic Director. After Kelly stepped down in order to devote herself to the Women of the World Festival, Madani Younis was appointed to the new role of Creative Director from January 2019, to work alongside Gillian Moore, the Director of Music, and Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery. Younis resigned in October 2019.

History

1950s

The history of Southbank Centre starts with the Festival of Britain, held in 1951. In what was described as "a tonic for the nation" by Herbert Morrison, the Labour Party government minister responsible for the event, the Festival of Britain aimed to demonstrate Britain’s recovery from World War II by showcasing the best in science, technology, arts and industrial design. It ran from May to September 1951, and by June the following year most of it had been dismantled, following the victory of Winston Churchill and the Conservative Party in the general election of 1951. The Royal Festival Hall is the only building from the Festival of Britain that survives.
and Shot Tower, 1959

1960s

From 1962 to 1965, the Royal Festival Hall was extended towards the river and Waterloo station and refurbished. The London County Council decided in 1955 to build a second concert hall and an art gallery on the eastern part of the South Bank site previously occupied by a lead works and shot tower. It was another 12 years before the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the linked Purcell Room opened to the public. Together, they were to be known as South Bank Concert Halls. In 1968, the Hayward opened, under direct management of the Arts Council. The new buildings had their main entrances at first floor level and were integrated into an extensive elevated concrete walkway system linked to the Royal Festival Hall and the Shell Centre. This vertical separation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic proved unpopular due to the difficulty pedestrians had in navigating through the complex, and the dark and under-used spaces at ground level below the walkways.

1980s

Following abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986, the South Bank Board was formed to take over operational control of the concert halls. The following year, the South Bank Board took over the administrative running of the Hayward from the Arts Council. Collectively, the arts venues, along with Jubilee Gardens, became the South Bank Centre, responsible to Arts Council England as an independent arts institution.

1990s

The walkway on the east side of the RFH, running along Belvedere Road towards the Shell Centre was removed in 1999-2000, to restore ground level circulation. The Waterloo Site has been the subject of various plans for modification or reconstruction, in particular a scheme developed by Richard Rogers in the mid-1990s which would have involved a great glass roof over the existing three buildings. This did not proceed due to the high degree of National Lottery funding required and likely high cost.
, 2007

2000s

In 2000, a masterplan for the South Bank Centre site was produced. The main features were
In line with the plans, in 2006-7 a new glass-fronted building was created to provide office space for Southbank Centre staff as well as a range of new shops and restaurants. This was inserted between the RFH and the approach viaduct to Hungerford Bridge. New restaurants and shops along the low level Thames elevation of the Royal Festival Hall replaced an earlier cafeteria area and accompanied pedestrianisation of this frontage, achieved by removing the circulation road. Between 2005-7 the Festival Hall auditorium was modified, the natural acoustic enhanced to meet classical music requirements. Seating was also reconfigured, together with upgrades to production facilities and public areas, with provision of new bar areas, the removal of most shops from foyer spaces, and refurbished lifts and WCs.

2010s

In early 2013 the Southbank Centre unveiled plans, which soon became a source of vigorous debate, for alterations to the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall dubbed the "Festival Wing", funded by Arts Council England. The proposal would have provided arts spaces in a new high level L-shaped building linking the Hayward Gallery and Purcell Room buildings and with a wing running parallel to Waterloo Bridge behind the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium. Its features were to include a glass pavilion, new arts spaces, a literature centre, cafes and commercial units.
The proposed alterations would have replaced the skate park which has developed in the undercroft, hailed as the birthplace of British skateboarding, with retail units to fund the new arts spaces. By May 2014, the campaign group strongly opposing the proposals called Long Live Southbank had gained over 120,000 members. As well as the skateboarders, the National Theatre also had objections.
In early 2014, the scheme was put on hold when the Mayor of London, then Boris Johnson, said he would not support removal of the skateboarding area from the Queen Elizabeth Hall undercroft to under Hungerford Bridge. The development of the undercroft area was a key commercial and financing feature of the Festival Wing new building proposal and the scheme could not proceed in its proposed form without the commercial development or substitute funding which was not available in the amounts required.

"Let the Light In" scheme to conserve and refurbish the 1960s buildings

awarded a £16m grant towards a two-year programme of repairs and conservation work on the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery in May 2014 and the scheme was granted planning permission in May 2015. The Southbank Centre also received funding for the conservation and limited alteration scheme, known as "Let the Light In", from the Heritage Lottery Fund and was raising funds from individuals for the final £3 million required.
This more conservation-orientated approach has also included joining with the National Trust to make the centre's 1960s buildings' contribution to the Brutalist movement better known. The buildings re-opened in 2018 following completion of the works.

Resident orchestras

The resident orchestras at Southbank Centre are: