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The Royal Festival Hall opened on 3 May 1951, providing London a replacement major concert hall to the Queens Hall destroyed in 1941. It was built by the London County Council as a contribution to the Festival of Britain, May-September 1951, and was the only structure planned to remain permanently on the site.
Responsibility for the design was given to a team at the London County Council architectural department. Robert H Matthew, Architect to the Council and J L Martin, Deputy Architect, were primarily responsible for the planning and design of the building. Edwin Williams, Senior Architect, was in charge of general organisation and progress and Peter Moro, was Associated Architect. In April 1988 Royal Festival Hall became the first post-war public building awarded Grade I listing.
The Hall initially included a large rectangular concert auditorium, which seats 2900 patrons, and a smaller recital hall. The building has been subject to ongoing development. In 1954, the organ was completed in main auditorium, and between 1962 and 1968 further building was undertaken on the site. Royal Festival Hall reopened in 1965, after eight months closure, with exterior walls slightly extended and refaced. In March 1967 two additional concert spaces were opened: the Queen Elizabeth Hall, seating over 900, and the Purcell Room seating more than 370. The adjacent Hayward Gallery opened in July 1968.
In 1983 the Greater London Council, successor administrative body to the London County Council, extended opening of the foyers of Royal Festival Hall to the public all day, seven days a week with free events and exhibitions being offered. In April 1986, the South Bank Board, a constituent part of the Arts Council of Great Britain, took over administration of the Southbank Centre concert halls following abolition of the Greater London Council.
In 1988 the Arts Council's Poetry Library, a collection of modern British poetry established in 1953, took up residency on level five of Royal Festival Hall.
From its beginning Southbank Centre concert halls have included a varied programme of musical and artistic events including orchestral, jazz and contemporary music, ballet, opera, lectures, recitals, readings and visual exhibitions.