Brutal Utopia

We travelled into London by car together this morning although headed for different offices for work. Nice to commute together and although busy in the traffic, the car makes a change from the train.

After work we met up and joined the Brutalist Utopia tour presented by the National Trust at the Southbank Centre. The tour took as around buildings which are about to begin a 2 year renovation programme to repair and refurbish them back to original design plus some subtle modernisations. This will cover the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery.

We were taken to areas of the buildings never before opened up to the public before and in particular some parts that will change in the process of the refurbishment. We heard about the history of the site, once home to the Festival of Britain and the eventual redevelopment in the 1960s and of course Brutalism. We saw at first hand the craftsmanship and care that went into the concrete constructions and how that stood at the centre of the buildings design and vision.

We moved from roof-top terraces through spiral stair cases right down to the tunnels and corridors between the buildings. We also traversed overhead walkways and were able to get into original 1960s machinery rooms, dressing rooms and, green rooms and the still fully equipped projection room. It was a fascinating visit. The tours run until 4th October.

There was no option for tripods (or time) so in the low light levels the ISO came up so don't zoom in on the main image! This is the Queen Elizabeth Hall. In the extras is a view from overhead where a light fitting had been removed and a bit of classic brutalist concrete.