Archive history and past projects
Our archive owes its existence to the hard work of a member of staff here at the Southbank Centre in the early 1980s
They gathered together a range of materials and photographs from across the Southbank Centre’s departments and from previous employees to begin our first systematic archive.
Over the decades more and more objects and items have been donated to the archive as well as personal recollections from staff, artists and audience members. As a result our archive now stretches to fill around one and half kilometres of shelves, and continues to grow.
Since 2017 we’ve had a physical home in the Southbank Centre, in the Archive Studio on Level 2 of the Royal Festival Hall’s foyers. And we continue to work together with the communities that make up the Southbank Centre to organise, shape and share the material we’ve been collecting since 1986.
History of the Southbank Centre
Past archive projects
Archive Reframed: The Bill Tonkin Collection
2026
Archive Reframed was an opportunity for young Londoners aged 18 – 25 to get to hands on with a very special collection of ephemera related to the Festival of Britain. Working with our staff, partners and artists they discovered more about the archiving process and explored storytelling through heritage.
Future Exhibition Makers
2023 – 25
Fuelling passion for history and storytelling, Future Exhibition Makers saw us work with young people aged 13 –18 with an interest in bringing stories of the past to life. The rich history of our archive offered the basis for our future exhibition makers to learn new skills in archiving, curation and exhibition-making.
Pride '87 at the Southbank Centre
2018
Enjoy a collection of images from our archive which depict the 1987 edition of The Lesbian and Gay Pride Carnival in the Gardens, which took place here on the South Bank at Jubilee Gardens between 1985 and 1988 as part of London’s Pride celebrations.
Every 27 September
2018
Take a look back through our archive for one insignificant date and get a snapshot of the planning that goes into each and every event at a celebrated London arts venue such as ours.
A poet’s guide to the archive
2017
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Poetry International – the poetry festival established by Ted Hughes and Patrick Garland, to bring together poets as the ‘voice of spirit and imagination’ – we commissioned poets Hannah Silva and Victoria Adukwei Bulley to write new poems responding to our archive collection.