How we got here
From the Festival of Britain to First Lady fever, a history of the Southbank Centre in landmark moments
Our foundations are laid
1949
Prime Minister Clement Attlee lays the foundation stone as work commences on the Royal Festival Hall, which will be the focus point of the 1951 Festival of Britain.
In a speech to mark the laying of the stone, Attlee said that the new concert hall ‘will show that we’re not just a nation of shopkeepers, but a people who appreciate and practice the arts’.
A beacon for change is lit
1951
The 1951 Festival of Britain is where our story properly begins. A ‘beacon for change’ the festival offered optimism and an antidote to the suffering of the Second World War.
The main festival site was here on London’s South Bank and at its heart was our Royal Festival Hall, the exhibition’s only permanent building. Officially opened by King George VI on 3 May, our first concert that evening was conducted by Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm Sargent.
Toscani brings in the crowds
1952
The arrival in London of the great Arturo Toscanini to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra at our Royal Festival Hall on 29 September 1952 created huge public interest, with 60,000 applicants for the two concerts.
With 150 standing tickets made available on each day of his performance, a huge queue formed, and some committed concert goers slept overnight on our foyer floor in the hope of securing one of the tickets.
Pulling out the stops
1954
Designed by Ralph Downes and constructed by Harrisons of Durham, our Royal Festival Hall organ’s installation was finally completed in 1954.
Downes, who would serve as the organ’s first curator, was also one of the first to play the instrument in concert; he was one of four organists on the bill for the opening recital on 24 March.
The Shankar connection begins
1958
The great composer and sitar-player Ravi Shankar made his first appearance at our Royal Festival Hall on 4 October 1958. So began a lifetime association between Shankar and the Southbank Centre that would continue into his 90s. The family connection continues to this day with Ravi’s daughter Anoushka Shankar regularly returning to perform on our stages.
The Royal Festival Hall meets Europe
1960
On 29 March we were beamed into homes across Europe as the Royal Festival Hall hosted the fifth annual Eurovision Song Contest.
The contest wasn’t quite the week-long spectacle it is today, with 13 countries competing on the night, whilst our balcony boxes served as commentary positions. France’s Jacqueline Boyer took the prize, just pipping Great Britain’s Bryan Johnson to win with ‘Tom Pillibi’.
Stravinsky bows out
1965
In what would be his final London performance, Igor Stravinsky appeared in our Royal Festival Hall to conduct the New Philharmonia Orchestra in a performance of his Firebird suite.
The 83-year-old composer received such an emphatic reception that the recalls and applause only ended when he returned to the stage wearing his coat and hat.
Brutalist beginnings and bubbles
1967
Our footprint increased significantly in 1967 when Queen Elizabeth II opened our new brutalist complex; the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall.
One of the latter’s first concerts was Pink Floyd’s iconic Games for May, which left its mark in more ways than one. Firstly with the pioneering use of quadraphonic sound, and secondly through a bubble-machine based finale that blemished our lovely new leather seats. The damage led to Pink Floyd being banned from the venue – a ban we didn’t rescind until 2016!
Electronic music plugs in
1968
On 15 January 1968 our Queen Elizabeth Hall hosted the First London Concert of Electronic Music by British Composers, a performance which included electronic pioneers Delia Derbyshire, Peter Zinovieff and Tristram Cary.
This landmark concert put our brutalist venues at the forefront of the burgeoning electronic music scene, a reputation enhanced five years later when we hosted the first live performance of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.
Living the life of Riley
1971
Four years after the opening of our Hayward Gallery, Bridget Riley became the first contemporary painter to have a full-scale retrospective in the venue.
Organised by the Arts Council Bridget Riley: Paintings and Drawings 1951–1971 was part of a European tour, and featured the artist’s black and white works, alongside her lesser known paintings, early drawings and sketches. Almost half a century later Riley would again take over the gallery with a 2019 retrospective.
Setting off a rocket
1972
In February 1972 Elton John and his band gave a notable concert in our Royal Festival Hall, performing their newly-recorded album Honky Château, including the live debut of ‘Rocket Man’, two months before its release as the album’s first single.
It seems not everyone was completely familiar with the headliner though, as his appearance was entered into our card record system as John Elton.
First on board
1973
Not everything we’re known for is by design. The Undercroft at the Southbank Centre is widely considered to be the birthplace of British skateboarding.
Designed to be a public space, its concrete slopes, banks and ledges have attracted skateboarders since the sport first began to find its wheels in the UK in the 1970s.
Open for all
1983
The introduction of the Greater London Council’s ‘open foyer’ policy in 1983 opens up arts venues across the city, including our Royal Festival Hall.
Having previously only opened a few hours before concerts or for special exhibitions, our foyers are now open to the public all day, seven days a week, with free exhibitions, lunchtime concerts, evening jazz performances, shops, bars and places to eat.
A new stanza begins
1988
The National Poetry Library takes up residency here at the Southbank Centre, with the poet Seamus Heaney officially opening its new home in our Royal Festival Hall in December, 1988.
Hayward Gallery presents The Other Story
1989
From November 1989 to February 1990 the Hayward Gallery hosted ‘The Other Story’. Devised and selected by artist, writer, editor and curator Rasheed Araeen – this seminal exhibition celebrated the contribution of artists from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to art in post-war Britain.
Among the 24 artists to take part were Sonia Boyce, Mona Hatoum, Lubaina Himid, Iqbal Geoffrey, David Medalla and Keith Piper.
The start of a persistent Meltdown
1993
Our first Meltdown festival takes place with composer George Benjamin curating the eight day event which promised ‘music, dance, film and performance beyond the cutting edge’.
Now the the longest-running artist-curated festival in the world, 28 other artists have since followed Benjamin’s lead, from Laurie Anderson to David Bowie, Yoko Ono to John Peel, Grace Jones to Patti Smith.
Nina returns for Nick
1999
‘Nina Simone is hugely important for me. She is the real thing,’ said Nick Cave, curator of 1999’s Meltdown of the artist he was desperate to include on his festival bill. Thankfully for all Cave got his woman and Simone, who had previously appeared on our stage in 1969 and 1979, won over a Royal Festival Hall audience for a third time in what would be her final London appearance.
A literary reopening
2007
In June 2007, to celebrate the reopening of our Royal Festival Hall and National Poetry Library following refurbishment, we hosted the first ever London Literature Festival featuring, among others, Helen Oyeyemi, Pat Barker and Wole Soyinka (pictured).
Now firmly established in the literary calendar it continues to bring huge names to our stage each autumn, including Ali Smith, Hanif Kureishi, Barbara Kingsolver, Hilary Mantel, Elif Shafak, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Tom Hanks.
Our gallery can’t contain Antony Gormley
2007
The Hayward Gallery welcomes Blind Light, Anthony Gormley’s first major showing in a London public gallery. Including several newly commissioned works that engaged with our architecture, the exhibition also notably took Gormley’s work beyond the gallery with Event Horizon, which featured 30 life-size casts of the artist’s body sited on the rooftops of surrounding buildings – all of them visible from the Hayward Gallery’s sculpture terraces.
Barenboim wraps up Beethoven
2008
A regular performer at the Southbank Centre, having debuted on our stage at the age of just 13 in 1956, Daniel Barenboim earns critical and public acclaim for his recital of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. Performed over eight concerts, Barenboim wrapped up his run on 17 February to a standing ovation in our Royal Festival Hall.
The first WOW moment
2010
Founded by our then Artistic Director Jude Kelly, WOW Women of the World took place at the Southbank Centre for the first time in 2010. Rooted in a want to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is desirable, possible and urgently required WOW has gone on to stage over 100 festivals and events across six continents, reaching more than five million people.
Chineke! make their debut
2015
Chineke! Orchestra, the first professional orchestra in Europe to be made up of majority Black and ethnically diverse musicians give their debut performance here in our Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Conducted by Wayne Marshall their opening concert highlighted works by Black British composers including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Philip Herbert.
First Lady fever
2018
We enjoyed a Toscanini moment for the digital age in 2018 as close to 60,000 people joined the online queue for tickets to see Michelle Obama in an exclusive Royal Festival Hall appearance.
The former First Lady was in London to discuss her new memoir, Becoming, joining novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on our stage in front of those lucky enough to secure tickets.
The journey continues
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