The South Bank

The area between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo – known to all as the South Bank – has long been recognised as a major arts and entertainment centre. In earlier times, however, this part of the riverside had been either derelict marshland or, later, used for industrial purposes. Laid waste in WW2, the site was then regenerated by both the 1951 Festival of Britain and subsequent investment in the 1960s and 70s, leading to the creation of the South Bank we know today.

For centuries this whole area was just marshland.                                                                                  John Roque’s map of the mid-18^th century shows how

the land then began to be used for industrial purposes. Narrow Wall, the original earthen wall, can be seen running parallel to the river, dividing the development along the river from the pasture land that covered much of Lambeth. By the 19^th century manufacturing plants began to spring up: leadworks, the Coade factory (making artificial stone) and Lion brewery (founded in 1836), as well as several tanneries.

Gradually the area fell into neglect and was then extensively bombed during WWII. The Festival of Britain provided an excuse to clear the debris and inject new life into the South Bank. Held on the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 the Festival was designed to foster British culture and boost postwar economic recovery. For five months it occupied the whole area between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge. Sadly, the only remaining building from the festival is the Royal Festival Hall as, when Churchill came back into power, he wanted everything pulled down, seeing the exhibition as a reflection of socialist propaganda.

A special feature of the Royal Festival Hall, now Grade I-listed, is its suspended auditorium, its construction considered radical at the time. The auditorium is effectively an ‘egg in a box’, the concert hall itself above the foyer cushioned against movement from trains by bars, lecture halls and restaurants. Enjoying panoramic views across the river, the hall was built using modernism’s favourite material, reinforced concrete, alongside more luxurious elements including beautiful woods and Derbyshire fossilised limestone. The large foyers – a revelation compared to the cramped lobbies of traditional West End theatres of the time – were pierced by white columns holding the huge 3,000 seat auditorium above them. 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.  The building’s original entrance sequence was much compromised by these and other changes, including the addition later in the 1960s of raised concrete walkways around the building to serve the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The Hayward. The Royal Festival Hall has become one of the world’s leading concert venues and is home to the Philharmonia orchestra.

 Adjacent to the Royal Festival Hall, the complex containing the Queen Elizabeth Hall (900+ seats),
the Purcell Room (370), the Hayward Gallery and the BFI is known as the South Bank Centre. The building dates from 1967 and is a bleak, squat structure with no windows in its foyer. The Queen Elizabeth Hall was famously voted "Britain’s ugliest building" by Daily Mail readers shortly after opening, but clearly people have learned to appreciate it a bit more these days – the whole complex has now (February 2026) been given a Grade-II listing - the last building on the South Bank to be listed - for its “bold geometric formations, clustered to sculptural effect with a correspondingly dramatic silhouette.”

 

Now the UK’s leading repertory cinema the BFI Southbank was formerly known as the National Film Theatre established in a temporary building in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain. In 2007, it was relaunched as BFI Southbank. As well as the three existing cinemas, the complex included a new small cinema (the studio), a médiathèque, a contemporary art gallery dedicated to the moving image (the BFI Gallery), a shop, and a bar and restaurant.

In 1848, London publisher Effingham Wilson was the first to call for Britain to have a national theatre, in a pamphlet entitled ‘A House for Shakespeare’. But it would be another century before a law would be passed releasing funds - £1 million pounds of public money - for such a project. The foundations were laid in 1951 but financial difficulties halted its progress until 1963 when the architect Denys Lasdun was appointed. In fact, so slow was progress that at one point critics Kenneth Tynan and Richard Findlater staged a mock funeral for the National Theatre next to the foundation stone! Construction eventually began in 1969 and what emerged was an assembly of rough-cast concrete blocks and slabs. The pyramidal structure of concrete decks is punctuated by lift towers and ventilation shafts. Lasdun always claimed it was not a building but an ‘urban landscape’. The public (along with Prince Charles) never liked it and Private Eye nicknamed it the ‘National Car Park’. The theatre finally opened to playgoers in 1976 and today comprises the Olivier, Dorfmann and Lyttleton Theatres.

 The South Bank buildings are loved and hated in equal measure, many people struggling to love their brutalist style, their unashamed use of raw, unfinished materials, bold geometric shapes and massive forms which challenge traditional ideas of what buildings should look like. And yet the South Bank continues to attract visitors from all over the world coming to enjoy a cultural offer that never disappoints.

References:

Chris's London: architecture walking tour of the South Bank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7NqEUZWNQg