Southbank Centre awarded Grade II listing after decades-long fight

London’s Southbank Centre — including the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the skatepark undercroft — has been granted Grade II protection by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, bringing to a close a long-running debate over the complex’s Brutalist architecture.

The buildings, once dismissed as “concrete monstrosities”, are now officially recognised for their significance. Constructed between 1949 and 1968, the arts complex was at one time voted Britain’s ugliest building. The Twentieth Century Society and Historic England had recommended listing on six occasions since 1991, only to see their advice repeatedly overturned.

The new decision ends a 35-year impasse that many campaigners described as anomalous. The centre’s origins trace back to a postwar reshaping of the Festival of Britain site, which left the Royal Festival Hall in place but cleared space for new development along the Thames.

United Kingdom, London

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