The Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Hayward Gallery and integral walkways. Built between 1963 and 1968 by the London County Council/Greater London Council, chief architect (Sir) Hubert Bennett, the Hayward Gallery jointly with the Arts Council. The design teams for both buildings were headed by Norman Engleback.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport disagreed with Historic England’s recommendation for this case. For further information please contact the Historic England Listing Group.

The Southbank Centre was the result of a long and interesting debate over the re-planning of the South Bank and the completion of the Royal Festival Hall after the Festival of Britain, in 1951, for which an additional small hall had been intended but never built. The construction of the National Film Theatre under Waterloo Bridge in 1956-1957 prompted consideration of the site between it and the Festival Hall, and a brief evolved for a small concert hall and an art gallery for touring shows. This was developed by a Special Works Group, which had come into being during the design of the Crystal Palace Sports Centre and which was perhaps the most lively of the small teams established by Sir Leslie Martin. After Sir Leslie's departure in 1957 this group, under Norman Engleback, had a surprisingly free hand to evolve its own ideas and he and others visited contemporary concert halls round Europe to study acoustics and sound insulation. The specific planning problems of the South Bank were also an issue, in particular the difference in levels between the river and Waterloo Station, as was a desire not to repeat the large mass of the Royal Festival Hall and intended National Theatre. The LCC approved the scheme in 1961 and the contract took over four years to complete, from 1963 until the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room in March 1967, and the Hayward Gallery (named after and opened by Sir Isaac Hayward, last Leader of the LCC) in July 1968.

The Hayward Gallery was the first major purpose-built gallery for loan exhibitions in Britain, and one of the first public galleries of any sort to experiment with modern styling and planning. The Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room were the first concert spaces in post-war Britain to offer facilities for smaller ensembles, and to provide a sympathetic, consistently designed modern aesthetic for the performance of new music. For the way in which massing and form are dictated by the internal plan and multiple functions, the complex is an expression of an emerging methodology in British architectural design. In its later stages the team included Warren Chalk and Ron Herron who went on, as Archigram, to be among the most original architectural thinkers of the 1960s, demonstrating their preoccupation with the informal relationship between structure, function and services, which remains an important theorem today.

As well as internal exhibitions, the exterior of the gallery, which was always intended for the display of sculpture, has provided a platform for exhibits and performance art. Since the mid-1970s the undercroft to the Queen Elizabeth Hall has been adopted by skateboarders, later joined by BMX bikers and parkour experts, while the walls and piers have acquired a layered history of graffiti, all contributing to the cultural diversity of the South Bank.

In 2002-2003 the entrance to the gallery was altered to the designs of Haworth Tompkins to provide a larger foyer, shop, café and educational facilities.

To update the building and remedy functional issues identified in the Conservation Management Plan by Montagu Evans and Allies and Morrison, the complex has undergone a major refurbishment in 2015 to 2017. The existing fabric of the gallery, auditoria and foyer has been renovated and restored, and all plant has been replaced, updating services to meet current standards and expectations. The most visible changes are in three areas. In the concert halls' foyer, new full-height windows, matching the existing, replace a redundant bar and open up a view of the Royal Festival Hall and river, while new light units in slatted timber replace the original arrangement. At the rear of the undercroft a new artists’ entrance and bar has been created. The upper galleries of the Hayward Gallery have new, pyramidal glazed roof lights and ceilings, linked to state of the art sun screens, replacing the previous problematic and redundant system and allowing the galleries to be top-lit as originally intended.

A second phase of work is planned to improve access and connectivity between the auditoria and gallery, and the adjacent National Theatre, British Film Institute (BFI), the Royal Festival Hall and the riverside, to enhance the context of the Southbank as a major cultural centre.

The Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Hayward Gallery and integral walkways. Built between 1963 and 1968 by the London County Council/Greater London Council, chief architect (Sir) Hubert Bennett, the Hayward Gallery jointly with the Arts Council. The design teams for both buildings were headed by Norman Engleback.

The design team at Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room included John Attenborough, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, John Roberts and WJ Sutherland; architect in charge of construction, EJ Blyth; acoustical consultants, Hope Bagenal and Hugh Creighton; structural engineer, Peter Dunican of Ove Arup and Partners; main contractors, Higgs and Hill.

The team at the Hayward Gallery included John Attenborough, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron and J W Szymaniak; architect in charge of construction, EJ Blyth; structural engineer, Peter Dunican of Ove Arup and Partners. Planned in conjunction with an advisory committee of the Arts Council.

STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS A predominantly reinforced concrete structure, faced externally in a mixture of in-situ concrete panels with 'rip-sawn' board markings, with a modulated surface rather than on a flat plane, and pre-cast concrete panels with an aggregate finish of Cornish granite chips; some of the exterior stairs have been painted. The upper gallery roof has new (2017) pyramidal glazed roof lights.

Internally, piers, walls and stairs are of exposed in-situ concrete panels with 'rip-sawn' board markings, modulated, as externally. The auditoria have hardwood, probably American ash, linings (described as coffee bean veneer in the original spec), afrormosia flooring, and seats covered in black leather (removed for refurbishment, July 2017). The foyer floor and walls are clad in white Macedonian marble contrasting with the exposed concrete of the piers and roof. Window units are of cast aluminium. Slatted timber ceiling units replace the original white panelled coffers. The galleries have renewed (2017) Italian terrazzo flooring; backstage areas in the auditoria have quarry tile flooring.

PLAN The complex occupies a tight site overlooking the river, between Waterloo Bridge (Grade II*) and the British Film Institute (BFI), formerly the National Film Theatre and Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) to the east, the Royal Festival Hall (Grade I) to the south-west, and Belvedere Road to the south. Designed organically from the inside out, it is laid out in two sections, linked at the upper, entrance levels by terraces which extend to stairs to the street and riverside levels below. The northern, riverside section comprises the Queen Elizabeth Hall and at right angles to it to the rear (south), the smaller Purcell Room, both served by a pincer-shaped foyer facing the river and Royal Festival Hall, with service rooms surrounding and below the auditoria, and all set over an undercroft. At street level at the rear are the original artists’ entrance and a new artists’ entrance, facilities and services. The open, northern section has been colonised by skateboarders, BMX bikers, parkour and graffiti artists.

The Hayward Gallery is laid out on two principal levels, with the public entrance at terrace level. A spiral stair and service core form the spine of the building, with five galleries set either side of it with other services beyond the galleries. The lower set of galleries are linked by an internal ramp which creates a balcony overlooking the lower level. The three lower galleries are also connected across the stair core. The upper two galleries are top-lit and have access to external sculpture terraces to the north-east and south-west. The entrance for delivery and storage of works of art is at street level and currently opens directly into the public realm. The second phase of works proposes a new, enclosed entrance to replace this.

EXTERIORS Brutalist in character, the complex has an organic, sculptural quality, reflecting the internal plan, made up of interlocking wedge-shaped, square, and rectangular-plan blocks and towers, and cantilevered balconies with solid parapets that splay outwards.

The concert hall is entered from the '28.00 ft' level of the surrounding elevated walkways. The main entrance to the QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL and PURCELL ROOM is beneath a steep pitched raking roof and blind wall above a fascia bearing the names of both halls and has six pairs of entrance doors in 'stucco' finish aluminium frames and integral handles. To the left (north) windows have been punched through, providing a view from the foyer to the Royal Festival Hall and river. Beyond them, is the distinctive spiral stair to the upper walkway level, now painted. The foyer overlooks the river to the north and a small internal court to the south, and is lit on both sides by large aluminium window units with rounded profiles, and on the western elevation by a clerestory of similar form. At the lower level is the undercroft supported on splayed-headed octagonal concrete columns, and the lower part of the stairs. To the rear the new artists’ entrance winds dramatically through sheer walls of board-marked concrete within a top-lit foyer. The old entrance bears the original signage.

The entrance to the HAYWARD GALLERY is from the '32.00 ft' level of the surrounding elevated walkways, and was altered in 2002-2003 to the designs of Haworth Tompkins, providing a large glazed space with a metal frame and surmounted with the letters of 'Hayward Gallery'. The upper galleries have a wide rectangular opening facing the Royal Festival Hall, and a smaller pair of openings (one the top of a ventilation shaft, the other access to the walkway) facing Waterloo Bridge. Cantilevered external balconies project from the building above the entrance and rear stairway to street level. Distinctive skylights in the form of glazed pyramids (2017) form part of new top-lighting for the galleries.

INTERIORS Internally, the special interest resides primarily in the public spaces, that is, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, the foyer and public circulation areas serving them, and in the Hayward Gallery, and circulation within it, including access to the upper level terraces.

Internal finishes in the public areas of the QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL and PURCELL ROOM are generally of high quality board-marked concrete, while contrasting with the structural concrete, the foyer walls and floor are clad in white marble. The foyer is set round structural octagonal columns with splayed heads. Broad concrete ceiling beams radiating from each pier form triangular voids in which slatted timber light units are fitted (replacing original white boarded light installations). The former bar area in the western corner has been opened up providing views out.

The Queen Elizabeth Hall was designed for 1,106 seats, and acoustically for small classical ensembles. It is raked but without galleries, has concrete walls lined with Helmholtz resonators in timber, seats in black leather and hardwood floors. To the left is a single box and to the right is a pair, stacked above each other, all in exposed board-marked concrete with timber side panels. To the rear the projection box is flanked by spiral service stairs with open concrete treads and steel balustrades. A stage has been added and extended, but the original character of the hall remains little altered, as a coherent space. The Purcell Room, designed for 372 seats, is simpler but similar in style and is also lined in timber. Lobbies to the auditoria are lined in vertical slatted hardwood.

Internal finishes in the HAYWARD GALLERY are generally of in-situ concrete, some now painted, and with chamfered edges around openings. The ceilings are of 'egg-crate' construction. At lower level provision for lighting is largely by artificial light with baffles in the ceilings. The ceiling height of the top-floor galleries has been raised and the galleries are lit naturally from glazed pyramidal rooflights. The ramp linking gallery 2 and gallery 3 draws the visitor to the upper gallery level and provides a balcony overlooking the lower level, creating a split-level, double-height space, and has a concrete and glass balustrade. The expressive, central internal spiral stair, in board marked concrete, has a rounded concrete balustrade and terrazzo treads. Apart from gallery one, which has a maple floor, floors are of terrazzo, which extends to the external balconies. Principal internal doorways have chamfered concrete frames and board-marked linings.

The storage, plant areas and services, circulation within them, and loading and access at the lower levels are utilitarian in their finishes and fittings, and some have been altered, for example with later partitions and to accommodate new plant. Whilst they are clearly part of the structure and form, internally they do not have the high level of significance evident in the external sculptural form and treatment, and the internal public spaces and circulation areas set out above. The operational plant and equipment are not relevant to the significance.

The WALKWAYS reflect 1960s strategies in separating pedestrians and road traffic, while also uniting the components of the site. They include their piers, balustrades and stairs with platforms at '28.00 ft' and '32.00 ft' level. The facetted piers and the undersides and edges of the platforms and the flanks of the minor stairs are of in-situ concrete with 'rip-sawn' board markings. The piers are related to the platforms by the flat-slab method of construction and have 'mushroom' heads. The balustrades consist of heavy pre-cast panels with curving tops. The main flights of stairs characteristically taper, while the minor stairs are expressed as tight, self-contained sculptural elements punched through the platforms of the walkways. That to the south of the site has been truncated and forms a cul-de-sac, with vehicle access below. To the west, the walkway connects with that of the Royal Festival Hall. To the north-east, the Queen Elizabeth Hall upper level walkway abuts the south side of Waterloo Bridge and the upper level of the BFI.