Southbank Centre

The flagship venue of the Southbank Centre, the collection of concrete buildings and walkways shoehorned between Hungerford and Waterloo Bridges, is the Royal Festival Hall. It is the oldest building of the centre still standing, having been erected to cheer up a glum postwar populace as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its slightly curved facade of glass and Portland stone always won it more public approbation than its 1970s neighbours, but a recent £90-millionrefit added new pedestrian walkways, bookshops, music stores and food outlets below it, including a restaurant called Skylon. Just north, Queen Elizabeth Hall is the second-largest concert venue in the centre and hosts chamber orchestras, quartets, choirs, dance performances and sometimes opera. It also contains the smaller Purcell Room. Underneath its elevated floor you’ll find a real skateboarders’ hang-out, suitably decorated with masterful graffiti tagging. The Hayward Gallery is one of London’s premier exhibition spaces for major international art shows. The grey fortresslike building dating from 1968 makes an excellent hanging space for the blockbuster temporary exhibitions it puts on. The South Bank Book Market, with prints and second-hand books, takes place daily immediately in front of the BFI Southbank under the arches of Waterloo Bridge.