Campaigners welcome ‘long overdue’ listing of Southbank Brutalist centre Build

The Southbank Centre, once voted Britain’s ugliest building, has been given List status, in a decision campaigners have hailed as the coming of the era of Brutalism.

Successive governments have resisted six separate proposals to include the center – a cluster of concrete buildings comprising the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Rooms and Queen Elizabeth Hall, plus a temporary skate park in the basement.

But after a 35-year campaign, the government agreed to give second place to the Southbank Centre, which was designed by the former London Council’s architects department led by Norman Engelback.

It underscores a shift in the building’s reputation. When it was completed in 1967, the architects voted the Queen Elizabeth Hall “extremely ugly” in a survey of new buildings. The Daily Mail published a picture of the Southbank Center under the headline: “Is this the ugliest building in Britain?”

Catherine Croft, director of the Century 20S Society (C20S), said the listing decision was “long overdue”.

She said: “The battle has been won, and brutality has finally come of age. This is a victory over those who mocked so-called ‘concrete monsters’, and shows a mature recognition of the way Britain has led the way.”

She also noted that the decision ended the anomaly of the Center being the only non-listed building in the Arts Park on the south side of the Thames.

Its neighboring buildings are of higher architectural value. The modern Royal Festival Hall is Grade I listed, and the National Theatre, which also has a Brutalist style, like the Southbank Centre, is Grade II*.

Croft said: “We are very pleased that this internationally recognized concrete masterpiece of post-war architecture has finally been accepted as part of our national heritage, some 35 years after the first C20S campaign to protect the Southbank Centre.”

She added: “It has become a complete anomaly not to include it on the list; it is admired as one of the best brutalist buildings in the world, so this decision is clearly well deserved and long overdue.”

In 2018, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) justified its decision to refuse inclusion of the Southbank Center by saying that its architecture was “neither unique nor groundbreaking”. In 2020, it made the building immune from inclusion in a license that expired last February.

The building’s owners had asked for this immunity to be extended for five years, but DCMS accepted the advice of its heritage body, Heritage England, which said the Southbank Center had “bold geometric formations grouped to create a sculptural effect with a similar dramatic silhouette”.

Its recommendation praised the building’s “use of exposed concrete in which the massive scale of the building is countered by the smooth texture and finish of its surface, executed with exemplary artistic skill.”

The Southbank Center urged ministers to fund a multi-million pound building refurbishment programme. A spokesperson for the company said: “The listing underscores the need for government investment in our buildings – all of which it owns. The Southbank Center has asked the government for £30 million to support improvements to our infrastructure in our 75th anniversary year. We look forward to working with the government to ensure that these buildings are able to thrive long into the future.”

Previous plans for the Southbank Center included wrapping it in a shell designed by the late Terry Farrell, and placing it under a glass roof in a £70 million scheme designed by the late Richard Rogers.