Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For centuries London stopped southwards at the Thames; the South Bank was a
marshy, uninhabitable place, a popular place for duck-shooting, but otherwise seldom
visited. Then, in the eighteenth century, wharves began to be built along the riverbank,
joined later by factories, so that by 1905 the Baedeker guidebook characterized
Lambeth
and Southwark as “containing numerous potteries, glass-works, machine-
factories, breweries and hop-warehouses”. Slums and overhead railway lines added to
the grime until 1951, when a slice of Lambeth's badly bombed riverside was used as a
venue for the Festival of Britain, the site eventually evolving into the
Southbank Centre
,
a vibrant arts complex, encased in an unlovely concrete shell. What helped kick-start
the South Bank's more recent rejuvenation was the arrival of the spectacular
London
Eye
, and the renovation of
Hungerford Bridge
, which is now flanked by a majestic
symmetrical double-suspension footbridge, called the Golden Jubilee Bridges. To get
the local view on the area and find out about the latest events on the South Bank (and
in neighbouring Southwark), visit
W
london-se1.co.uk.
15
Southbank Centre
W
southbankcentre.co.uk
In 1951, the South Bank Exhibition, on derelict land south of the Thames, formed
the centrepiece of the national
Festival of Britain
, an attempt to boost postwar morale
by celebrating the centenary of the Great Exhibition (when Britain really did rule
over half the world). The most striking features of the site were the Ferris wheel (now
reincarnated as the London Eye), the saucer-shaped Dome of Discovery (inspiration
for the Millennium Dome), the Royal Festival Hall (which still stands) and the
cigar-shaped steel and aluminium Skylon tower.
The great success of the festival eventually provided the impetus for the creation of
the
Southbank Centre
comprising the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the
Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery, all squeezed between Hungerford and
Waterloo bridges. Unfortunately, however, it failed to capture the imagination of the
public in the same way, and became London's much unloved culture bunker. The low
point came in the 1980s when hundreds of homeless lived under the complex in a
“Cardboard City”. Since then, there have been considerable improvements, and the
centre's unprepossessing appearance is softened, too, by its riverside location, its avenue
of trees, fluttering banners, regular “pop up” festivals and food stalls, occasional buskers
and skateboarders, and the weekend secondhand bookstalls outside nearby BFI
Southbank. The nearest tube is Waterloo, but the most pleasant way to
approach
the
Southbank Centre is via Hungerford Bridge from Embankment or Charing Cross tube.
Royal Festival Hall
Southbank Centre • Poetry Library Tues-Sun 11am-8pm • Free •
W
poetrylibrary.org.uk •
!
Waterloo
The only building left from the 1951 Festival of Britain is the
Royal Festival Hall
or
RFH,
one of London's main concert venues, whose auditorium is suspended above the
open-plan foyer - its curved roof is clearly visible above the main body of the building.
The interior furnishings remain fabulously period, and exhibitions and free events in
the foyer - the
Clore Ballroom
- are generally excellent, making this one of the most
pleasant South Bank buildings to visit. You can also kill time before a concert in the
little-known
Poetry Library
on Level 5, where you can either browse or, by joining
(membership is free), borrow from the library's vast collection of poetry accumulated
since 1912.
Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery Mon noon-6pm, Tues, Wed, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm, Thurs & Fri 10am-8pm • From £10 •
T
020 7960 4200 •
!
Waterloo
Architecturally, the most depressing parts of the Southbank Centre are the
Queen
Elizabeth Hall
(QEH) and the more intimate
Purcell Room
, which share the same foyer
