 UK £39.95 US $65.00 Hardback with jacket 192 pages 200 illustrations 28 x 23.5 cm (11.25 x 9.5 in) ISBN: 978-1-8589-4721-1 Published in the UK April 2026 Published in the US May 2026 | Royal Festival Hall A Living Icon Edited by Eleanor Jolliffe and Sandy Rattray Photography by Edmund Sumner Foreword by Dan Cruickshank The Royal Festival Hall (RFH) - an important example of modernism in architecture and one of London's best-loved buildings - was built as a beacon of hope and renewal after the Second World War, and quickly became popular. In this new book, a selection of contributors - architects, technicians, musicians, historians and cultural programmers - tell the varied stories of the building and the people who use it. The book is illustrated with photography specially commissioned from renowned architectural photographer Edmund Sumner, and contains 21 written contributions on different aspects of the RFH, from its history as a piece of architecture to the story of the famous organ, from the approach to literature and spoken word to the life of the production team. The building's emergence as a destination for all, whether to enjoy a performance by a world-famous symphony orchestra, a dance class, a poetry reading or just a cup of coffee, is considered in the context of the intentions of its original planners and those who have led, maintained and refurbished it since. This book offers an invaluable record of the history of this celebrated building in the first 75 years of its life, and looks to its future as a centre of cultural programming - both weathering and shaping change - for many more decades to come.
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Author Profiles Eleanor Jolliffe is an architect, columnist and author, and in 2023 was awarded the Rome Scholarship in Architecture. She is an associate at the architectural practice Allies and Morrison, and leads the firm's house architect work at the Royal Festival Hall. Sandy Rattray is an architectural historian, author and governor of the Southbank Centre, and was a director of Allies and Morrison. Edmund Sumner is a London-based architectural photographer who collaborates with leading architects, publishers, editors and curators all over the world. Dan Cruickshank is an architectural historian and television presenter. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the Executive Committee of the Georgian Group, and on the Architectural Panel of the National Trust | ||
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