Southbank Centre in the context of "Royal Festival Hall"

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⭐ Core Definition: Southbank Centre

Southbank Centre is an arts centre in London, England. It is adjacent to the separately owned National Theatre and BFI Southbank.

It comprises the three main performance spaces – the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell Room – as well as the Hayward Gallery and National Poetry Library. It is the largest centre for the arts in the UK. The Southbank Centre drew around 3.7 million visitors in 2024 and stages approximately 5,000 performances each year. Three to four major art exhibitions are presented at the Hayward Gallery annually. Together with the Barbican Centre, a similar arts venue, the Southbank Centre is also known for its brutalist architecture.

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👉 Southbank Centre in the context of Royal Festival Hall

The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become so protected (in 1981). The London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the London Sinfonietta, Chineke! and Aurora are resident orchestras at Southbank Centre.

The hall was built as part of the Festival of Britain for London County Council, and was officially opened on 3 May 1951. When the LCC's successor, the Greater London Council, was abolished in 1986, the Festival Hall was taken over by the Arts Council, and managed together with the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room (opened 1967) and the Hayward Gallery (1968), eventually becoming an independent arts organisation, now known as the Southbank Centre, in April 1998.

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Southbank Centre in the context of Royal National Theatre

The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, adjacent to (but not part of) the Southbank Centre. The theatre was founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963 and many well-known actors have since performed with it.

The company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo until 1976. The current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, it tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities were suspended in February 2021 over concerns about uncertainty over work permits, additional costs and delays because of Brexit. Permission to add the "Royal" prefix to the name of the theatre was given in 1988, but the full title is rarely used. The theatre presents a varied programme, including Shakespeare, other international classic drama, and new plays by contemporary playwrights. Each auditorium in the theatre can run up to three shows in repertoire, thus further widening the number of plays which can be put on during any one season. However, the post-2020 covid repertoire model became straight runs, required by the imperatives of greater resource efficiency and financial constraint coupled with the preference (and competition for the availability) of creatives working across stage and screen, thus bringing it in line with that of most theatres.

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Southbank Centre in the context of 76th British Academy Film Awards

The 76th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 19 February 2023, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2022, at the Royal Festival Hall within London's Southbank Centre. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2022.

The nominations were announced on 19 January 2023 via a global livestream, hosted by actors Hayley Atwell and Toheeb Jimoh, from the arts charity's newly redeveloped HQ at 195 Piccadilly, London. The Rising Star Award nominees, which is the only category voted for by the British public, were announced on 17 January 2023.

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