Decision means 1960s building joins its Brutalist neighbours including the National Theatre and Royal Festival Hall in benefitting from protected status
The Twentieth Century Society has hailed the government’s decision to list the Southbank Centre at grade II as a sign that “Brutalism has finally come of age” after a 35-year battle to save the 1960s landmark from demolition.
The heritage group and Historic England had recommended the Brutalist gallery and performance space complex for listing on six occasions since 1991 but the bids have been consistently rejected by the secretary of state.
That impasse was brought to an end last week, with the building now joining its row of listed neighbours including the grade I-listed Royal Festival Hall, the grade II*-listed National Theatre and the grade II-listed IBM building in benefitting from protected status.
C20 director Catherine Croft said the Department of Media, Culture and Sport’s decision to list the building was ”a victory over those who derided so called “concrete monstrosities” and shows a mature recognition of a style where Britain led the way”, adding that its lack of protected status had become a “complete anomaly”.
The complex was designed by the Architects’ Department of the London County Council under the leadership of architect Norman Engleback, whose team included John Attenborough, John Roberts, WJ Sutherland, and three architects who would later join the Archigram group, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron and Dennis Crompton.
Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1967 and 1968, the complex includes the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and an undercroft space used as a skate park.
It is known for its bold geometries, adventurous use of space and its textured, board-marked concrete, used throughout its interior and exterior and intended as a direct contrast to the smoother Scandinavian-style Modernism of the neighbouring Royal Festival Hall.
But the building attracted controversy almost as soon as it opened, being voted “Britain’s ugliest building” by readers of the Daily Mail in October 1967 before coming under sustained threat of redevelopment from the 1980s as brutalist buildings fell out of fashion with the public.
A plan by Terry Farrell in 1989 to wrap the building in a post-modern shell was abandoned in 1993, while a £70m proposal by Richard Rogers to cloak the building in a glass roof called “The Wave” was junked after it failed to receive National Lottery funding.
Threats to the building continued with a £120m plan by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios to build a 60m-long glazed pavilion over the Hayward Gallery and 5,000sq m of retail space, which was dropped in 2014 following a petition launched by skateboarders which attracted 80,000 supporters and the backing of then London mayor Boris Johnson.
FCBS went on to lead a programme of restoration and conservation of the site in 2018, following a £16.7 million grant from Arts Council England.
Croft said: “It is admired as one of the best Brutalist buildings in the world, so this decision is obviously very well deserved and long overdue. The arts complex is a highly sophisticated, sculptural masterpiece, with enormous richness of form and detail inside and out. The experience it gives concert goers and gallery visitors is unlike any other venue in the country, its virtuoso spaces still unrivaled,” Croft said.
Croft said credit for the decision must be given to heritage minister Fiona Twycross, who she said has done the right thing, where her predecessors over the past few decades have failed to act”.
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