Construction of our Queen Elizabeth Hall
Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in March 1967.
Ranked as ‘the ugliest building in Britain’, by a Daily Mail poll shortly after its opening it has long shaken off that tag to become a much loved venue, celebrated for its iconic brutalist architecture.
The text here is based on information found in ‘The Art of Concrete: Building the South Bank Arts Centre’ by Christine Wall, Linda Clarke, Charlie McGuire and Olivia Muñoz-Rojas.
This pamphlet was produced as part of a University of Westminster research project entitled Constructing Post-War Britain: Building Workers’ Stories, 1950-1970.
The construction of such a modern building took time, with work on Queen Elizabeth Hall commencing in 1963. These images, selected from our archive, offer a unique look at that long careful construction process.
In the foundations
On the scaffold
Site cleared and ready to go
Early work is underway
Commencing with the concrete
Work underway across the whole site
Glazing the building
Setting out the auditorium
Beginning to take shape