The Southbank Centre was once voted Britain’s ugliest building, but fresh interest in its architecture after the success of The Brutalist has prompted a renewed call to get it listed.
For 34 years successive governments have resisted proposals to list the centre – a set of concrete buildings that include the Hayward Gallery, the Purcell Rooms and Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The Twentieth Century Society (C20S), which campaigns for modern designs, has called again for the three buildings to be listed. The calls came on Wednesday when an immunity from listing was due to expire.
The owners of the building have asked for this immunity to be extended for another five years. The C20S has recommended this should be rejected and that ultimately the centre be granted Grade II*-listed status. The society claims it has the backing of the government’s heritage agency, but Historic England said its views listing were confidential.
Historic England (formerly English Heritage) has recommended listing the Southbank Centre on five separate occasions but this was rejected by successive culture secretaries.
If the Southbank Centre were to be listed, it would end one of longest-running architectural standoffs between campaigners and the authorities.
Catherine Croft, the director of the C20S, said: “This visionary combination of performance spaces and art gallery is a postwar architectural masterpiece, and is perhaps the most totemic – and controversial – example of British brutalism, currently in the spotlight thanks to the Oscar-nominated film of the same name.”
This week the three-and-half hour movie won best picture at the London Critics’ Circle awards, and it is one of the favourites for the Oscars.
Croft herself hated the movie. At a screening last month she told the Guardian’s architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright: “It’s just utter tosh.” But she has been delighted by the enthusiasm it has sparked for brutalist buildings, particularly the Southbank Centre.
Croft said: “This is the building which often prompts the response ‘I can’t believe it’s not listed’. It is an internationally recognised brutalist masterpiece, long loved by aficionados and now increasingly understood and respected by the wider public.”
The Hayward Gallery, Purcell Rooms and Queen Elizabeth Hall were designed by the former London county council architects department, led by Norman Engleback, and opened by the late queen.
Their deliberately rough concrete surfaces marked a change in style from the sleek surfaces of classical modernist architecture. When the centre was completed in 1967, Daily Mail readers voted it Britain’s ugliest building.
Since listing was first proposed in 1991, several plans have been put forward to redevelop the Southbank Centre, but all have ended in failure.
Other modernist and brutalist buildings on the South Bank have been listed, including the Royal Festival Hall which was granted Grade I status in 1988, and Denys Lasdun’s Royal National Theatre, which was Grade II* listed in 1994.
Listing the Southbank Centre would require approval from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Croft said: “Our message for DCMS and the heritage minister, Chris Bryant, is: do the right thing.”
She added: “The recent restoration has revitalised the inspirational interiors, and we’re confident listing would not impede any future programming or maintenance. Moreover, the complex unquestionably meets all the relevant criteria for a designation.
“The prestige and recognition of listing would send out a positive message about our brutalist heritage more generally, and encourage the appreciation and sustainable reuse of other outstanding examples across the country.”
A spokesperson for Historic England said: “Any listing recommendation we make is confidential until DCMS has made its decision.”
