The South Bank Centre (Museums & Art Galleries in London in general)

Member Name: edie

Product:	Museums & Art Galleries in London in general
Date:	22/03/01 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's certainly different, some cool places are located there

Disadvantages: Its impossible to find them, ugly run-down setting

The South bank is a complex of quite outstanding ugliness, found as the name suggests on the south bank of the River Thames. With it’s harsh concrete brutalism, the building is frequently derided by conservatives as the embodiment of all that is wrong with modern architecture. Although it’s not all that modern now, being an extension of the 1951 Festival of Britain and long-term home of London’s biggest arts complex: housing the Royal National Theatre, National Film Theatre, Royal Festival Hall and the Hayward Gallery and my favourite place, the Museum of the Moving Image. While commentators frequently debate the wisdom of having the country’s important cultural centres located in what looks like a massive public car park, usually complete with teenage skateboarders.

Although the South Bank is a place of unobvious charm its now, ironically, a valuable part of our architectural heritage. It’s an almost perfect example of the 1950/60s ultra modern style and at a time when these places are frequently demolished as eyesores, it’s one of the few public buildings of its kind left. Apart from it’s aesthetics, the South Bank has a serious design problem, being the most irritating building to use on a practical level. The maze of separate buildings, split level surfaces, connecting walkways and circular staircases often make you feel like you’re trapped in a giant Escher drawing. It’s all too easy to get lost and even when you can see where you want to go, it’s somehow impossible to actually get there.

The South Bank’s current state of disrepair makes it look even worse. A critic recently described it as being a mess of "weather-stained concrete, rain-swept walkways, urine-soaked stairs", a damning though not inaccurate description. Personally, I think it’s a building in the wrong location. The South Bank’s stark white lines would look attractive against clear blue ski
es and in perpetual sunshine. (And the mainly open air complex is not an unpleasant place to be in summer.) But forty something years of British riverside weather haven’t been kind to a porous material like concrete and now it’s riddled with damp, moss, mould and most worrying, large cracks. Since the 1980s politicians have been debating what to do about it with discussions about demolition and moving out. But now with the current urban regeneration of the whole south bank area and additions like the Millennium Wheel and Tate Modern within walking distance, renovation seems like a more likely scenario

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