Hayward Gallery, London

Visited the new Hayward Gallery (London) rework last weekend, and have been prompted by Chris Heathcote’s recent post on same to upload me pics (click the thumbnails for larger images.) Chris got to see inside – I didn’t, yet, but I did have the benefit of a cracking London autumn day.

The new entrance is a glass box, which is larger and lighter than previously, and enables the actual gallery walls to be seen from outside. The approach to the gallery looks a little muddled now, as the first photo indicates, but the seated area outside is an improvement. The viewing gallery also looks like a smart addition and the Dan Graham Waterloo Sunset sounds great. And yes, the cafe is a Starbucks, but it was probably the cleanest, sharpest Starbucks I’ve ever seen.

The elegant sans serif lettering sits atop the box (I’m fond of this kind of free standing lettering atop entrances – often seen in continental municipal buildings), providing a counterpoint to the fabulous Neon Tower atop the gallery (built in 1970 by Philip Vaughan and Roger Dainton, at night the colours respond to the strength and direction of the wind – it would’ve been nice to extend this interaction into the new lettering perhaps.)

(You can see the previous Hayward entrance here, till they update it I guess. Hear Denys Lasdun talk about the building at BBC Four. Oops correction: the excellent thingsmagazine points out it wasn’t Lasdun who designed the Hayward – that it was part of the South Bank Centre masterplan by GLC Department of Architecture, led by Geoffrey Horsefall, with Hubert Bennett the principal designer. Lasdun did the related building next door, the National Theatre. Ta!)

Most of the Hayward remains untouched and so it remains a quite beautiful building, integrating wonderfully into the rest of the South Bank complex. For a suite of buildings that usually scores well in those irritating lists of Britain’s ugliest buildings, it’s surely one of London’s treasures. How can anyone say this building is ugly, when it artfully frames such views of London, making a gallery of its surroundings; which reworks the space around it in numerous interesting ways, walkways unfurling and strata jutting in front of you; which creates sudden views of river and sky, and as the day draws on, lets the sun warm its wood-pressed concrete walls, casting shadows angular and curving:

A favourite aspect has always been the stairwells which punctuate walkways and platforms. Part of a family of post-war British stairwells also seen in Denys Lasdun’s signature building, the Royal College of Physicians. The signage throughout the whole complex could do with a revamp though – you can see the somewhat tired signs on the second photo – it’d be an interesting commission.