Royal Festival Hall Renovation

[Day Release]

Royal Festival Hall refurbished

Maev Kennedy
Monday October 24, 2005
The Guardian


Royal Festival Hall renovation plans

Each morning the workers pass the Royal Festival Hall's spine-chilling notice stating "70 Weeks to go". The grade-I listed hall, the heart of the South Bank complex in London and the last remaining building from the 1951 Festival of Britain, is in a state of tumult not seen since the first builders were on site.

In the auditorium, in place of the shabby seats and a fiercely patterned carpet, an extraordinary structure has risen incorporating 30 miles of scaffolding and 40 miles of planks. The rest of the building is a shell, its doors and limestone and timber panels stored, ready to be cleaned and replaced.

Parts of the building invisible for more than 25 years are exposed daily. The original materials varied in quality. The copper plumbing was superb. When last week one pipe was punctured with a nail, a workman used the traditional remedy and walloped it: the pipe was so thick the hammer bounced back.

The building reopens early in 2007, its renovation due to take only slightly less time than the 18 months of construction that began with foundations punched into the site of the old Thames-side Red Lion brewery. As built in weary post-war Britain, the hall was promoted by the Labour government as "a tonic for the nation". It cost £2m. The renewal, which revives the terraces complete with tropical plants and fountains, will cost £91m, of which £10m still needs raising.

Apart from alterations to improve the sawdusty acoustics, the entire building was in desperate need of a wash and brush up. The project director, Ian Blackburn, describes the job as a step towards the South Bank masterplan, the third attempt in the past 20 years to revive a complex that has degenerated into a squalid rain-streaked concrete mass riddled with stinking underpasses.

[JDRS]

Has anyone got any renders of the outside or what it used to look like?

[Accura4Matalan]

About bloody time...

[Day Release]

[Day Release]

Inside

[Zim Flyer]

It looks OK on the inside, but jees that's an ugly building.

[JDRS]

So is the building exterior being updated too?

[Day Release]

The whole South Bank Complex is being refurbished and redeveloped, which is good news because it's become an embarrasment.

The RFH is also was renowned through out the world for it's poor acoustics (which the refurbishment will atempt to put right). Personally I hate the South Bank as it is, so any improvement is welcomed, but why couldn't they just build some thing worthy of it's location in the first place

[Medo]

excellent news, I always avoid taking pictures of that place because it's so ugly.

[Zim Flyer]

Originally Posted by Day Release

The whole South Bank Complex is being refurbished and redeveloped, which is good news because it's become an embarrasment.

The RFH is also was renowned through out the world for it's poor acoustics (which the refurbishment will atempt to put right). Personally I hate the South Bank as it is, so any improvement is welcomed, but why couldn't they just build some thing worthy of it's location in the first place

I guess a mixture of cost and the 1950's hey all things modern are good approach.

[Day Release]

Originally Posted by Zim Flyer

I guess a mixture of cost and the 1950's hey all things modern are good approach.

Too true Zim, although when you look at the
Royal Albert Hall, it just makes you want to
weep at the lost opportunity that the
Royal Festival Hall is, we should have had some
thing world class instead we have a shabby concrete
bunker with poor acoustics in the middle of London

Royal Albert Hall

[johnnypd]

the south bank is one of the most glorious urban sites in the world and yet the buildings look like some pathetic 1960s shopping centre in a bleak new-town like corby or washington! knock them down. royal festival hall is the only one that is at least not extremely ugly it is just bland.

[Day Release]

Originally Posted by johnnypd

the south bank is one of the most glorious urban sites in the world and yet the buildings look like some pathetic 1960s shopping centre in a bleak new-town like corby or washington! knock them down. royal festival hall is the only one that is at least not extremely ugly it is just bland.

Nothing glorious about it imo, it's ugly brutalist and unwelcoming, plus the place was a muggers paradise and a great place for tramps, down and outs and drug addicts.

I would happily demolish the fucker, but looking on the bright side it is being refurbished and redevolped to be more user friendly and more pleasing to the eye.

[johnnypd]

Originally Posted by Day Release

Nothing glorious about it imo, it's ugly brutalist and unwelcoming, plus the place was a muggers paradise and a great place for tramps, down and outs and drug addicts.

I would happily demolish the fucker, but looking on the bright side it is being refurbished and redevolped to be more user friendly and more pleasing to the eye.

i didn't mean the buildings i meant the geographic location right on the riverbank as it curves round so that that particular parcel land is really exposed and prominent when viewed from many different places and it's across from big ben, and near waterloo bridge and near the london eye etc. the buildings are a national disgrace in such a position.

[nick_taylor]

I'd re-build that entire area - prime area for neo-gothic and neo-classical buildings just like the Victorians made - would have to be no taller than 12 storeys, but imagine how much the offices and apartments inside these said buildings would go for - astronomical would be the word. Glass and steel would simply not be acceptable on such a site. Imagine another Royal Albert Hall like structure on the South Bank! The entire complex takes up just under 30acres! Thats an immense area that could be sold of, redeveloped to incorporate facilites which would actually be useful in an architectural style which would be welcoming. I'd re-build Waterloo Bridge as well in a fitting iron + stone Victorian neo-Gothic style. Same for London Bridge. Infact everything between Jubilee Gardens and Oxo Tower has to go. There has to be better connection between Waterloo, Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge



How anyone could justify that they be grade listed is just one massive sick joke when there are so many far more historic and classic buildings that miss out on such a status. The fact that it needs to constantly be updated while older and more historic buildings manage to have far far longer lifespans kind of shows the black hole they are.

To make it even worse is the fact that it creates such a bloody detour for me when I come out of Waterloo and go across Hungerford.

[Monkey]

The Royal Festival Hall, to be fair, is a much more attractive building than the National Theatre or Queen Elizabeth Hall. Also the refurbishment is very good so far. There are now bars, restaurnants, bookshops, music shops etc in what used to be a dead urban space. I think it will turn out very well in the end even if a refurbishment is less exciting than a completely new building by, say, Frank Gehry. Be patient....

[loureed]

Originally Posted by Day Release

Too true Zim, although when you look at the
Royal Albert Hall, it just makes you want to
weep at the lost opportunity that the
Royal Festival Hall is, we should have had some
thing world class instead we have a shabby concrete
bunker with poor acoustics in the middle of London

Royal Albert Hall

actually, doesn't the Royal Albert Hall have terrible acoustics??? It wasn't designed with acoustics in mind that became fashionable for concert halls to do later on.

althought it may have been refurbished to be more music friendly.

[nick_taylor]

A lost cause. Still needs to be demolished and replaced with something like the Royal Albert Hall and various apartments and offices of a height no more than 12 storeys in the neo-gothic/classical style with better integration to the river crossings, Waterloo and other public areas.

[Bob]

I like the Festival Hall. It's a very pleasing building to be in with lots of space and wide open vistas across the Thames. The outside doesn't shout wealth and exhuberance. So what. It is well built. At pedestrian level the South Bank is an undeniable success story.

Yes the Albert Hall has problems with acoustics. The Barbican has had a lot of criticism over the years too. We've just been a bit unlucky that we have had no new concert hall built since acoustics has been properly understood.

[johnnypd]

Originally Posted by Bob

I like the Festival Hall. It's a very pleasing building to be in with lots of space and wide open vistas across the Thames. The outside doesn't shout wealth and exhuberance. So what. It is well built. At pedestrian level the South Bank is an undeniable success story.

Yes the Albert Hall has problems with acoustics. The Barbican has had a lot of criticism over the years too. We've just been a bit unlucky that we have had no new concert hall built since acoustics has been properly understood.

on another site that would be ok, but this location demands something special, not a bland, utilitarian "okayish" building. the rest of the south bank buildings are nothing more than hideous.