Hayward Gallery

Opened in 1967-68, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery joined the already existing Royal Festival Hall to create a powerhouse of artistic provision. At the end of the Second World War the Thames-side site, despite its glorious views across to the Houses of Parliament, was little more than a derelict industrial wasteland. The 1951 Festival of Britain had transformed the area, but it was short lived, with most of its structures removed when the incoming Conservative government came to power in later that year – leaving Royal Festival Hall standing in a wasteland. Plans for the additional buildings were revealed in 1961, with work beginning in 1963.

This complex of buildings was designed by a group of radical young architects led by Norman Engleback, working for the London County Council, which then housed the world’s largest architectural office. They were given astonishing freedom to innovate, although the entire team was brought to the brink of resigning when their experimental and radical ideas were threatened. The architects approached the project from the inside out, with the exterior a secondary consideration to the requirements of the concert halls and galleries.

The structure that resulted from these collaborations is a thrilling hodgepodge of sprouting mushroom columns, jumbled geometries, cantilevered cubes, and precipitous terraces. All of these elements tie together with an upper-level podium, out of which the buildings rise like dirty icebergs. The architecture is often contrasted with that of the neighbouring Royal Festival Hall as being emblematic of the difference between the architectural culture of the 1950s and of the 1960s

Dennis Crompton, one of the rebellious young architects who designed Southbank Centre, argued that ‘People don’t fall in love with the buildings; they fall in love with the things made possible because of the buildings.’ Concrete Dreams served as a love letter to these buildings, and all the wonderful things that were made possible because of them. It gave an opportunity to look back, but also to take inspiration from 50 pioneering years, and look forward to a continuing legacy where these concrete buildings continue to play host to concrete dreams.