SOUTH BANK ARTS COMPLEX

major complex of theatres, halls, and museums covering 27 acres (11 hectares) in the borough of Lambeth, London. Standing amid the South Bank approaches to the Waterloo and Hungerford bridges, the complex is the site of the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Hayward Gallery, the National Film Theatre, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Saison Poetry Library, and the Royal National Theatre. The Jubilee Gardens and the office blocks of Shell Centre adjoin the complex to the south. For centuries the riverside district was dominated by industrial concerns and warehouses, but the aerial bombings that targeted London in World War II ruined the area. With the preparations for the Festival of Britain (1951), which was devised as an economic stimulus to London, the South Bank was transformed by the construction of the Royal Festival Hall and other buildings. The Festival Hall is used for concerts, recitals, ballet, and film presentations, and it is the home of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Its seating capacity is more than 3,000 for some types of performances. The Queen Elizabeth Hall, which seats about 1,000, and the smaller Purcell Room were opened in 1967. The Hayward Gallery, which was opened the following year, hosts a variety of art exhibitions in both indoor and outdoor settings, and the National Theatre building (1976) includes three theatres (the Lyttelton, the Olivier, and the Cottesloe). The National Film Theatre (1958) evolved from an exhibit at the Festival of Britain, and it grew in 1970 with the addition of a second auditorium; it is associated with the Museum of the Moving Image (1988), which traces the histories of cinema and television from their early roots to the present time. The Saison Poetry Library, with its 77-seat Voice Box for literary readings, also opened there in 1988. A major remodeling scheme for the entire complex was initiated in the mid-1990s.