Southbank Centre is certainly more than the sum of its buildings – the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Hayward Gallery. It stretches from the London Eye to BFI Southbank (formerly the National Film Theatre) and includes a flagpole, a book market, cafés and restaurants, fountains and free foyer entertainment. But, most importantly, it is home to memories.
Southbank center as it stands today grew out of the Festival of Britain’s flagship exhibition, held on the south bank of the Thames in 1951. At that time, shortly after the end of World War II, much of London was still in ruins and redevelopment was badly needed. The Festival was an attempt to give Britons a feeling of recovery and progress and to promote better-quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities following the war. The Festival also celebrated the centenary of the 1851 Great Exibition. It was the brainchild of Gerald Barry and the Labour Deputy Leader Herbert Morrison who described it as "a tonic for the nation".
After years of bombing and rationing, the South Bank Exhibition was an unprecedented extravaganza, filled with new technology, art, design and colour. Eight-and-a-half million people arrived by train, tram, bus, car and on foot to experience it.
1950’s
The Royal Festival Hall, designed and built within three years by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts is the only surviving building from the festival of London and had officially opened on 3 May 1951.
1960’s
From 1962 to 1965, the Royal Festival Hall was extended towards the river and Waterloo station and refurbished. The London County Council (later, Greater London 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 (and which had been earmarked as a site for the National Theatre. The Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room were built alongside the Royal Festival Hall in 1967, and the Hayward opened in 1968.
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