TOUR | Behind the Scenes: the Southbank Centre

Richard Battye, project architect from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios leads this very special Members Only tour of the recently completed works at Southbank Centre, that have transformed and modernised the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery for generations to come. 

Southbank Centre, with its origins in the 1951 Festival of Britain, is one of the great democratic and imaginative buildings of the last century and holds a unique place in the London arts scene. This restoration and redesign was primarily a conservation project to replace building services, improve environmental performance, upgrade infrastructure to support an ever-widening artistic programme, and improve disabled access for audiences and artists. This foundation of renewal and upgrading of the existing buildings has given them a new lease of life and a low maintenance future.

The works also reinterpret the Hayward Gallery's iconic pyramid roof with a solution that allows controlled natural light back into the galleries, described by Henry Moore in the context of the new galleries as “God’s daylight”. Achieving this successful daylight was raised as “a matter of the utmost importance” by the Arts Council to the GLC in 1966 while the buildings were under construction and continues to be at the heart of the project.

Photo © Morley Von Sternberg