Decision to grant Grade II status marks turnaround for what was once voted ‘Britain’s ugliest building’
The Southbank Centre, once voted Britain’s ugliest building, has been granted listed status, in a decision hailed by campaigners as the coming of age of brutalism.
Successive governments have resisted six separate proposals to list the centre – a set of concrete buildings made up of the Hayward Gallery, the Purcell Rooms and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, plus a makeshift skatepark in its basement.
But after a 35-year campaign the government has agreed to give Grade II status to the Southbank Centre, which was designed by the architects department at the former London council council led by Norman Engleback.
It confirms a turnaround in the building’s reputation. When it was completed in 1967, engineers voted Queen Elizabeth Hall “the supreme ugly” in a poll of new buildings. The Daily Mail carried a picture of the Southbank Centre under the headline “Is this Britain’s ugliest building?”
