The Guardian view on the Southbank Centre: ministers must support innovation in the present as well as the past | Editorial

2026-02-20 - 18:13

The decision to grant listed-building status to the brutalist arts complex was bold. Now artists need support to match it The granting of Grade II-listed building status to the brutalist concrete Southbank Centre, comprising the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Hayward Gallery and Purcell Room, is a bold embrace by the government of this London landmark. It is also timely. Seventy-five years ago, the 1951 Festival of Britain transformed the South Bank. Of its buildings, only the Royal Festival Hall remains. From its postwar beginnings, the South Bank has grown into a cultural landmark recognised far beyond London. The section of the Thames Path taking in the Southbank Centre, BFI cinemas, Royal National Theatre, Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe is the flourishing successor to the Victorian precinct of the Kensington museums and the Royal Albert Hall. The festival was designed to help the nation to recover from the traumatic years of the second world war, and to look forward to a better future. This month’s decision to protect the 1960s component of the Southbank Centre is a vindication of that vision of hope. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...