South Bank Arts Centre
PUBLIC SPACE AND THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT London Modernist Case Study Briefing (c. 2016 FABE Research Team, University of Westminster) SOUTH BANK ARTS CENTRE CONTENTS 1. CHRONOLOGY 3 2. POLICY AND IDEOLOGY 4 3. AGENTS 6 4. BRIEF 8 5. DESIGN 10 6. MATERIALS/ CONSTRUCTION 14 7. RECEPTION 16 BIBLIOGRAPHY 19 PROJECT INFORMATION Case Study: The South Bank Arts Centre (Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Purcell Room), Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX Dates: 1960 - 1968 (Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room opened March 1967; Hayward Gallery opened October 1968) Architects: Norman Engleback (lead architect), E.J. Blyth, J.A. Roberts, W.J. Sutherland, Ron Herron, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, John Attenborough, Bryn Jones (Hubert Bennett was the Architect to the GLC at the time.) Client: The London County Council and the Arts Council Contractors: Higgs and Hill Ltd., with Ove Arup & Partners as structural engineers and over 100 sub-contractors. Financing: London County Council (public funding) Site area: 21 acre site (Hayward Gallery ~ 20,000 sq ft. QEH ~ 13,000 sq ft) Tender price: Quoted £3.7 million (including the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall), actual approximately £7 million, of which £800,000 for the Hayward Gallery. 2 1. CHRONOLOGY 1943 Patrick Abercrombie and J.H. Forshaw identified the South Bank as a comprehensive development area in the County of London Plan (1943). 1948 Labour Government’s Clement Attlee announced Festival of Britain as ‘tonic to the nation’. 1949 Construction began on the Royal Festival Hall and the Queen’s Walk, a public boulevard and embankment extending from the County Hall to Waterloo Bridge.
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