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The Hayward Gallery has been threatened with demolition at least three times. It opened in 1968 as part of the Southbank Centre's 1960s expansion — designed by the GLC Architects Department — and immediately attracted controversy. The public found its concrete mass forbidding, its lack of natural light strange, its stepped terraces and rooftop sculpture courts eccentric. Artists and architects disagreed, and continued to disagree as the building's reputation slowly shifted. It is now Grade II listed and widely recognized as one of Britain's most significant brutalist buildings. This view captures the building at its most architecturally complex: the rough aggregate tower in the upper left, the board-marked cantilevered terraces stepping forward in the center, the overhang pushing into the Thames sky on the right. And at the lower edge, the signage — confirming what the concrete alone almost makes you forget: that this is a gallery, and that art has been made and shown here for over fifty years.
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