Charlie Billingham: Views on Floral Patterns
Charlie Billingham’s use of bespoke, hand-printed wall stamps transforms our Hayward Gallery Cafe into a richly decorative environment.
Created using laser-cut reliefs based on the artist’s own painted designs, these prints give the illusion of ornate wallpaper overlaid with framed paintings, creating an atmosphere of a delightfully eccentric gallery tea room.
Primarily a painter, Billingham draws inspiration from 18th-century satirical prints of notable figures and social scenes. He reconfigures stylistic elements and motifs from these historical sources into abstracted compositions.
In response to the cafe’s setting, Billingham’s commission Views on Floral Patterns (2025) also incorporates views of the Hayward Gallery and the Southbank Centre. The result is a playful merging of our buildings’ modernist and brutalist architecture with the ornate, highly decorative visual language of the past.
Charlie Billingham (b. 1984) lives and works in London. He graduated from the Royal Academy Schools, London, in 2013 and has exhibited in numerous institutions around the world, including SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah; MAZ – Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Zapopan; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Inverleith House, Edinburgh; and Saatchi Gallery, London.
For your visit
This event is held at the Hayward Gallery Southbank Centre
The Hayward Gallery is currently closed.
It reopens for Anish Kapoor on Tuesday 16 June 2026.
Plan your visit
The Hayward Gallery is also where you’ll find the HENI Project Space.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
Cloakroom
We have a cloakroom for coats, umbrellas and small bags; it costs £2 per item.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Exhibition tours
Guided tours of our Hayward Gallery exhibitions are available to ticket holders; the dates and times of these can be found when you click through to book your exhibition tickets.
If you’d like to arrange a private/group tour of an exhibition, please contact us. The Hayward Gallery does not accept external tour guides or tour groups – all exhibition tours must be arranged through the Southbank Centre.
Food & drink
Offering sandwiches, salads, cakes and coffee, Hayward Gallery Cafe is the perfect spot for a pre-exhibition energy boost or a post-visit drink.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.