"Fiona Twycross, the heritage minister, is to be congratulated for finally giving London's Southbank Centre Grade II listing (Campaigners welcome long overdue' listing of brutalist Southbank Centre, 10 February). I remember being shocked when I first saw it in the 1960s, but it has become a remarkable symbol of the zeitgeist. Its grey concrete and its childlike composition together express the fatalism and despair of a nation in economic and political decline."
"The news about the Southbank Centre reminded me of a mystery coach trip I joined in 1972 as a first-year university student. Depressed by the rain-soaked grey concrete ziggurats of the Denys Lasdun-designed University of East Anglia, we fancied a change of view. Imagine our delight when the coach finally drew up outside a familiar grey concrete structure the Royal National Theatre, also designed by Lasdun."
Fiona Twycross, the heritage minister, gave London's Southbank Centre Grade II listing. The building's grey concrete and childlike composition have become a symbol of the zeitgeist, expressing fatalism and despair associated with economic and political decline. The centre's prominent ugliness on the banks of the Thames is presented as needing protection to prevent demolition by future, more optimistic generations. A recollection from 1972 describes students dismayed by the rain-soaked grey concrete ziggurats of Denys Lasdun's University of East Anglia, who were then pleased to find the Royal National Theatre, another Lasdun-designed grey concrete structure, on a mystery coach trip.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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