Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall (German: Königliche Festhalle) in London is a venue for concerts, dance and lecture events, which is located in the Southbank Center . It is located in the Southbank Area on the south bank of the Thames , not far from Hungerford Bridge . As a so-called “Listed Building” of Level I (Grade I), the building enjoys special protection and was the first post-war building in England to be classified in this category (in April 1988).
The foundation stone was laid in 1949 on the site of a former brewery owned by then Prime Minister Clement Attlee . It was London County Council's contribution to the Festival of Britain (a national exhibition opened in 1951; the Festival Hall was the only permanent building) and the official opening took place on May 3, 1951. The construction was also intended to create a replacement for the Queen's Hall , which was destroyed in World War II .
The design of the Festival Hall follows modernism after the festival's architect Hugh Casson decided to only use young architects. Leslie Martin , Peter Moro and Robert Matthew from LCC's Architects' Department were responsible for the designs ; Martin was only 39 when he was commissioned to head the design team at the end of 1948. Martin designed the basic structure as an “egg in a box”; he used this term to describe the separation of the curved auditorium from the surrounding structure - and thus also from the noise and vibrations caused by the neighboring railway bridge.
The building underwent a significant change in substance in 1964 when foyers and terraces were added on the river side of the building and the number of changing rooms at the rear was increased. This gave the façades, which were originally stylistically based on Scandinavian, light-footed modernism, a clearer and more angular appearance. The original sequence of the entrances was significantly impaired by these interventions as well as by the later addition of raised concrete entrances. In 1967/68 the neighboring buildings Queen Elizabeth Hall (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Purcell Room (Purcell Hall) and The Hayward were added, which are also part of the Southbank Center .
Since the late 1980s, the Festival Hall has followed an “open foyers” principle, with essential foyer rooms being opened to the public during the day, even if there are no performances. This met with a wide response and the Festival Hall foyers are now one of the most heavily used public spaces in London.
Under the direction of Allies and Morrison Architects , a thorough renovation has been carried out in recent years to improve the poor acoustics, increase the efficiency of the entrances and the flexibility of the auditorium, as well as the general quality of the building materials, the entrance areas and the foyer furnishings . A number of seven business and catering facilities were added on the river side and the adjacent walkway on the river was redesigned, although London's preferred public skateboarding area below the hall has been eliminated. The total cost of the renovation is estimated at around £ 115 million. In June 2008 the renovation of the Southbank Center was completed.
In 2014, the restoration of the organ with 7710 pipes installed in the Royal Festival Hall in 1954 was completed, which was removed during the renovation work. The restoration was carried out by Harrison & Harrison , which originally built the organ.
After the Greater London Council (the successor to the London County Council) was dissolved in 1986, the Arts Council took over the Festival Hall. It is now operated by the Southbank Center .
The Royal Festival Hall is the headquarters of the London Philharmonic Orchestra . It has 2,900 seats, the neighboring Queen Elizabeth Hall seats 917 and the Purcell Room seats 370. The closest underground station is Waterloo .
literature
- Edward Jones, Christopher Woodward: A Guide to the Architecture of London . Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, 1983, ISBN 0-297-78188-X .
Web links
- London's new concert hall takes shape. Report on the laying of the foundation stone. In: theguardian.com. The Guardian , October 13, 1949, accessed April 7, 2018 .
- Royal Festival Hall - Entrance Canopies. Fluid Structures - architecture of the new entrance area
Individual evidence
- ↑ About us. In: southbankcentre.co.uk. Southbank Center, accessed April 7, 2018 .
- ↑ Anual Report 08/09. Southbank Center, 2009. Retrieved February 25, 2019 .
- ^ Royal Festival Hall unveils its new look. In: london-se1.co.uk. June 3, 2007, accessed April 7, 2018 .
- ^ Royal Festival Hall gets £ 950K for organ refurbishment. In: bbc.com. BBC News , June 17, 2010, accessed April 7, 2018 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 21 ″ N , 0 ° 7 ′ 0 ″ W.