Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall

Concert hall built between 1949 and 1951 as the London County Council's contribution to the Festival of Britain, with major additions and alterations in 1963–1964 including new river and Belvedere Road fronts and recasting of the side elevations, and some minor interior changes since. The original design team was headed by Leslie Martin under the overall control of Robert Matthew, with the interior largely the work of a group under Peter Moro and Edwin Williams as architect in charge of construction. Scott and Wilson were the engineers, with acoustic design by Hope Bagenal, Williams Allen and Peter Parkin. The 1963–1964 additions were designed by a London County Council team under Norman Engleback including David Wisdom, Harty Abbot, Tony Booth and Robert Maxwell.

Historical Context

The Festival of Britain, held from May to September 1951, was a nationwide celebration of United Kingdom arts, industry and technology. It marked the centenary of the Great Exhibition and aimed to encourage a sense of national pride and optimism for the country's post-war recovery. The main Festival site on London's South Bank was visited by some 8.5 million people and included the Royal Festival Hall and a suite of pavilions, cafés and sculptures, as well as the Festival Gardens in Battersea Park. A 'Live Architecture' Exhibition at the Lansbury estate in east London included several buildings, whilst the Royal Navy vessel Campania was converted into the Festival 'Sea Travelling Exhibition'. Festival events were organised by communities across the country.

Structural System

The building rests on mass concrete foundations extending to a depth below Newlyn datum. The basic structural concept is that of an 'egg in a box': a separate enclosed structure for the auditorium sits above and within the building envelope. The main structural material is reinforced concrete for all load-bearing walls. The auditorium is elevated above the surrounding building on a forest of 'sleeved' columns (for sound insulation) and buttressed at the corners by the internal stairs of the foyers. The auditorium walls consist of a double skin of concrete faced with Derbyshire fossil marble, polished on interior surfaces facing the foyers and weathered naturally on the exterior of the building where the walls rise above the surrounding envelope. The roof of the auditorium is supported by a series of 120-foot trussed steel girders of bowstring shape covered with a double skin and finished with copper, creating a curved profile rising from back to front. The outside envelope of the building is largely flat-roofed.

Exterior

The outside envelope of the building, largely dating from 1963–1964, is faced predominantly in Portland stone with passages in blue-grey mosaic and some small areas of cream-brown tiling. The river (west) front takes the form of a gentle curve, with a double-height tier of windows above Level 3, on top of which is a recessed terrace with five open bays in the centre exposing columns of elongated form. The north front facing the Hayward Gallery is predominantly in Portland stone with the former Festival entrance left of centre and a screen of glazing above; the ends of this front are canted out above terrace level, and three mosaic-clad escape stairs emerge to the right of the entrance. The Belvedere Road (east) front is entirely of 1963–1964, with a row of ten elongated columns unobstructed apart from a mosaic-clad office area at ground level, and an upper Portland-stone-clad portion of the elevation cantilevered out at the 42-foot level; a thin strip of windows runs at a high level along the front. The south (Hungerford Bridge) front has a slightly recessed centre of five bays in which the columns show partly on the outside and partly behind a glass screen, as on the west front.

The building is entered from terrace level on the south front, ground level on the north front, and from a terrace on the ground level on the west front, where the current main entrance hall with box office and cafeteria sits outside the main building envelope below the terrace between the west front and the river wall.

Interior Circulation Spaces

From the main west entrance, a staircase rises and branches into two, with Derbyshire risers and Travertine treads. The furniture of this stair and elsewhere is characterised by specially designed bronze uprights and handrails, wooden side handrails and glass side screens. The main foyer is at the 24–28 foot level. The central area is paved in Derbyshire and Derbyshire fossil marble. The sleeved columns supporting the auditorium are variously finished, chiefly in plaster in the centre and with wooden strip at the sides between staircases. At the sides and throughout the upper levels of foyers and stairs, specially designed 'net and ball' green, blue and grey carpet is laid, all facing in the same direction. The main foyer at the 24–28 foot level is ceiled by the underslope of the auditorium with slats between lighting fixtures. At the east end of the building, the foyer from 1963–1964 has plainer treatment with wood floor and flat ceiling.

Higher areas of circulation space include a large double-height room, formerly a restaurant of 1963–1964, facing the river. Many details of the circulation areas have been changed.

Auditorium

The auditorium, not greatly changed since 1951, is stepped to a depth of 100 feet from a slate floor in front of the orchestral platform and the main cantilevered balcony. The orchestral platform is also stepped, with birch flooring. The hall is ceiled in fibrous plaster with openings for lighting and for the acoustic system, and has a suspended curved canopy of elm over the orchestra. The sides of the auditorium are gently canted on plan and mainly panelled with strips of elm. Boxes with fronts of curved profile are cantilevered off the auditorium walls and connected by internal passages backed with red wool hangings designed by Sadie Speight. The rear wall of the auditorium is canted; the organ in the centre was built in 1950–1953 by Harrison and Harrison of Durham to a specification by Ralph Downes and installed behind a screen of pipes designed by Leslie Martin. The auditorium seating is in grey fabric to an original design by Robin Day.

Architectural Style and Significance

The style of the building is best described as in the spirit of the Festival of Britain, amended in the 1960s in accordance with Corbusian loyalties. The structural system of both the original building and the additions emphasises the distinction between supports and walls. The original conception was strongly influenced by the architecture of Berthold Lubetkin and of Gunnar Asplund, with Scandinavian influence especially strong in the interior fittings and finishings.

The Royal Festival Hall has been Britain's premier concert hall since its opening by George VI in 1951 and has been associated with countless famous musicians and others. The additions of 1963–1964 completed the building by extending circulation and restaurant space at the front and adding offices at the back, instead of the 'small hall' originally intended at the back in 1951 but abandoned because of lack of time.

The building has significant group value with other public buildings along the Thames, and specifically with South Bank cultural buildings to its north, with which it is linked by the 1960s terrace system. The additions of 1963–1964 were conceptually linked with the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall.