30-659: Meltdown is an annual festival held in London, featuring a mix of music, art, performance and film. Meltdown is held in June at Southbank Centre , the arts complex covering 21 acres (85,000 m) and including the Royal Festival Hall , the Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Hayward . Each year, the festival chooses an established music artist or act as director of the event, and they pick the performers of their choosing. Directors of
60-593: A larger space back in Piccadilly. It has been located at the Royal Festival Hall since 1988, when Seamus Heaney opened the new venue. With the relocation, the library was given the Signal Poetry Collection of children's poetry books which had been held by Book House. This formed the basis for the library's body of works for children and young adults, available for loan and reference. The beech furniture
90-593: A second concert hall and an art gallery on the eastern part of the South Bank site previously occupied by a lead works and shot tower (and which had been earmarked as a site for the National Theatre ). It was another 12 years before the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the linked Purcell Room opened to the public. Together, they were to be known as South Bank Concert Halls. In 1968, the Hayward opened, under direct management of
120-479: A wing running parallel to Waterloo Bridge behind the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium. Its features were to include a glass pavilion, new arts spaces, a literature centre, cafes and commercial units. The proposed alterations would have replaced the skate park which has developed in the undercroft , hailed as the birthplace of British skateboarding, with retail units to fund the new arts spaces. By May 2014,
150-967: Is a complex of artistic venues in London , England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge ). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the National Poetry Library , the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room ), together with the Hayward Gallery , and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracted 4.36 million visitors during 2019. Over two thousand paid performances of music, dance and literature are staged at Southbank Centre each year, as well as over two thousand free events and an education programme, in and around
180-648: Is a free public collection housed at Royal Festival Hall in London's Southbank Centre . Situated on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the river Thames , the library aims to hold all contemporary UK poetry publications since 1912. It houses the largest collection in Britain, numbering over 200,000 items, including works by small presses. It also holds audio and video materials, critical texts and works for children for loan and reference. The library contains work by non-UK poets and publishers and press cuttings are also archived for members' research. Membership
210-527: Is free and material is borrowed through the national inter-lending library services or returned by post. The library provides support for schools nationally and locally. The venue has an exhibition and event space. Use and enjoy this place. Burrow in, borrow on. John Hegley speaking of the Poetry Library This is a pleasant library. I'd enjoy every minute But for the danger of meeting other poets in it. Wendy Cope speaking of
240-526: The Arts Council . The new buildings had their main entrances at first floor level and were integrated into an extensive elevated concrete walkway system linked to the Royal Festival Hall and the Shell Centre . This vertical separation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic proved unpopular due to the difficulty pedestrians had in navigating through the complex, and the dark and under-used spaces at ground level below
270-900: The Brutalist movement better known. The buildings re-opened in 2018 following completion of the works. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic , which halted live performances and closed exhibitions, most of the centre's 600 employees were furloughed, and in July 2020 up to 400 were expected to be made redundant. The Hayward Gallery reopened in August but the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall were expected to remain closed until April 2021. The resident orchestras at Southbank Centre are: 51°30′20.56″N 00°07′0.34″W / 51.5057111°N 0.1167611°W / 51.5057111; -0.1167611 National Poetry Library The National Poetry Library
300-1227: The COVID-19 pandemic . 65daysofstatic , Alcest , God Is an Astronaut , Kristin Hersh , Low , Maybeshewill , Mono , The Notwist , Suzanne Vega , The Penelopes A Dead Forest Index , The Anchoress , And Also the Trees , Black Moth Super Rainbow , Blue Crime , The Church , De Rosa , Douglas Dare , Drahla, Eat Static (DJ Set), Emma Ruth Rundle , False Advertising , Fear of Men , Hilary Woods , I Like Trains , Indian Queens, Is Bliss, Jambinai , James Walsh , Jo Quail , Jónsi , Alex Somers & Paul Corley : 'Liminal', The Joy Formidable , JoyCut , Kælan Mikla , Kagoule , Kathryn Joseph , Kiasmos DJ Set, Kidsmoke, Kite Base , The KVB , Loop , Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, Martinez, Matt Holubowski , Misas Fall, Moon Duo , Planning for Burial , PG. Lost, Pumarosa , Skinny Girl Diet , The Soft Moon , Thought Forms, Tropic of Cancer, The Twilight Sad , Vessels Live & DJ set, Vex Red , Yonaka 51°30′24.99″N 0°6′50.07″W / 51.5069417°N 0.1139083°W / 51.5069417; -0.1139083 Southbank Centre Southbank Centre
330-819: The Women of the World Festival , Madani Younis (previously Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre ) was appointed to the new role of Creative Director from January 2019, to work alongside Gillian Moore, the Director of Music, and Ralph Rugoff , Director of the Hayward Gallery. Younis resigned in October 2019. The role of artistic director remained vacant until the appointment of the former creative director of Manchester International Festival , Mark Ball who took up his position at
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#1732851947491360-532: The English are so seldom given credit". Poet Laureate Andrew Motion echoes Larkin's sentiments: "The most extraordinary thing, is the fact that it exists at all. As Larkin said, it's the kind of thing that you don't expect England to do. It flies in the face of the way we generally run things, ie neglect things. I used it a lot when I was doing the Here to Eternity anthology. The stock is extremely good and very catholic – and
390-515: The Jubilee Gardens Trust and the car park on the remaining land beyond Hungerford Bridge was sold in 2013, to extend the gardens as part of the Shell Centre redevelopment. The site is next to the National Theatre and BFI Southbank , but does not include them. The closest Underground stations are Waterloo and Embankment . Misan Harriman became chairman of the Board of Governors of
420-587: The Poetry Library The library was established in 1953 on the recommendation of the Poetry Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain , with the remit of promoting modern and contemporary poetry. Opened by poets TS Eliot and Herbert Read , the library quickly grew beyond the capacity of premises and then the next, moving from Albemarle Street to Piccadilly , to Long Acre in Covent Garden and then to
450-520: The Poetry Library, including Poet Laureate Ted Hughes . He worked on the Rattle Bag anthology at the library during the 1970s, writing of the experience: Very strange experience, squeezing every morning into modern poetry, and sitting in there all day all curled up with book clamped over mouth inhaling deeply, then coming out in the five or six o clock dark. Many other poets find their inspiration in
480-578: The Southbank Centre in 2022, succeeding Susan Gilchrist, who had held the role since 2016. Elaine Bedell was appointed as Chief Executive in 2017; from 2009 to 2016 that position was held by Alan Bishop, former chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi International and Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information . September 2005 saw the arrival of Jude Kelly as the centre's Artistic Director. After Kelly stepped down in order to devote herself to
510-721: The Southbank in January 2022. The history of Southbank Centre starts with the Festival of Britain , held in 1951. In what was described as "a tonic for the nation" by Herbert Morrison , the Labour Party government minister responsible for the event, the Festival of Britain aimed to demonstrate Britain’s recovery from World War II by showcasing the best in science, technology, arts and industrial design. It ran from May to September 1951, and by June
540-479: The campaign group strongly opposing the proposals called Long Live Southbank had gained over 120,000 members. As well as the skateboarders, the National Theatre also had objections. In early 2014, the scheme was put on hold when the Mayor of London, then Boris Johnson , said he would not support removal of the skateboarding area from the Queen Elizabeth Hall undercroft to under Hungerford Bridge. The development of
570-487: The east side of the RFH, running along Belvedere Road towards the Shell Centre was removed in 1999–2000, to restore ground level circulation. The Waterloo Site (the late 1960s buildings) has been the subject of various plans for modification or reconstruction, in particular a scheme developed by Richard Rogers in the mid-1990s which would have involved a great glass roof over the existing three buildings. This did not proceed due to
600-400: The festival have included Elvis Costello , David Bowie , Patti Smith , Lee Scratch Perry , Morrissey , Jarvis Cocker , Nick Cave , Scott Walker , John Peel and Ornette Coleman , Grace Jones , and Chaka Khan . The festival has been held annually since 1993, except in 2006 when the Royal Festival Hall was closed for refurbishment, and when the 2020 Meltdown was postponed to 2022 due to
630-509: The following year most of it had been dismantled, following the victory of Winston Churchill and the Conservative Party in the general election of 1951. The Royal Festival Hall is the only building from the Festival of Britain that survives. From 1962 to 1965, the Royal Festival Hall was extended towards the river and Waterloo station and refurbished. The London County Council (later, Greater London Council ) decided in 1955 to build
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#1732851947491660-518: The high degree of National Lottery funding required and likely high cost. In 2000, a masterplan for the South Bank Centre site was produced. The main features were In line with the plans, in 2006-7 a new glass-fronted building was created to provide office space for Southbank Centre staff as well as a range of new shops and restaurants. This was inserted between the RFH and the approach viaduct to Hungerford Bridge . New restaurants and shops along
690-399: The library. It's truly a place where poets and readers meet. As well as poets laureate, though, we see school students, families with young children, casual readers, critics, academics, teachers and artists 'squeezing every morning into modern poetry. Poet Philip Larkin was a vocal supporter. He wrote "The Poetry Library is one of the occasional pure flowerings of the imagination for which
720-506: The low level Thames elevation of the Royal Festival Hall replaced an earlier cafeteria area and accompanied pedestrianisation of this frontage, achieved by removing the circulation road. Between 2005 and 2007 the Festival Hall auditorium was modified, the natural acoustic enhanced to meet classical music requirements. Seating was also reconfigured, together with upgrades to production facilities and public areas, with provision of new bar areas,
750-445: The performing arts venues. In addition, three to six major art exhibitions are presented at the Hayward Gallery yearly, and national touring exhibitions reach over 100 venues across the UK. Southbank Centre's site, which formerly extended to 21 acres (85,000 m ) from County Hall to Waterloo Bridge , is fronted by The Queen’s Walk . In 2012 management of Jubilee Gardens transferred to
780-448: The removal of most shops from foyer spaces, and refurbished lifts and WCs. In early 2013 the Southbank Centre unveiled plans, which soon became a source of vigorous debate, for alterations to the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall dubbed the "Festival Wing", funded by Arts Council England . The proposal would have provided arts spaces in a new high level L-shaped building linking the Hayward Gallery and Purcell Room buildings and with
810-655: The scheme was granted planning permission in May 2015. The Southbank Centre also received funding for the conservation and limited alteration scheme, known as "Let the Light In", from the Heritage Lottery Fund and was raising funds from individuals for the final £3 million required. This more conservation-orientated approach has also included joining with the National Trust to make the centre's 1960s buildings' contribution to
840-514: The undercroft area was a key commercial and financing feature of the Festival Wing new building proposal and the scheme could not proceed in its proposed form without the commercial development or substitute funding which was not available in the amounts required. Arts Council England awarded a £16m grant towards a two-year programme of repairs and conservation work on the Queen Elizabeth Hall , Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery in May 2014 and
870-615: The walkways. Following abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986, the South Bank Board was formed to take over operational control of the concert halls. The following year, the South Bank Board took over the administrative running of the Hayward from the Arts Council . Collectively, the arts venues, along with Jubilee Gardens, became the South Bank Centre, responsible to Arts Council England as an independent arts institution (after transitional arrangements). The walkway on
900-572: Was designed for the site by Terrance Conran . The library was closed from 2005 to 2007 during refurbishment of the Festival Hall building. Its re-opening was celebrated with London's first festival of literature. The Poetry Library: housing of arousing browsing Roger McGough speaking of the Poetry Library Commentators on BBC's Radio 4 have described it as one of the world's greatest libraries. Many poets and editors have developed their collections and anthologies at
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