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The Hayward Gallery is an Art Gallery within the South Bank Centre , situated on the South Bank of the River Thames , in central London , England . Its location places it alongside several other major arts venues, including the Royal Festival Hall , the Queen Elizabeth Hall / Purcell Room and the Royal National Theatre . The Hayward opened on 9 July 1968 and its powerful massing and concrete construction makes it a good example of Brutalist Architecture . It was designed by the Department of Architecture and Civic Design of the Greater London Council , and is named after Sir Isaac Hayward , a former leader of the London County Council , the GLC's predecessor. The Hayward hosts major temporary exhibitions and does not house any permanent collections. From 1968 to 1986 the gallery was managed by the Arts Council Of Great Britain but management then passed to the South Bank Centre . The gallery is also the base of the Arts Council's National Touring Exhibitions programme and until 2002 the Arts Council Collection. Unusually for a British gallery receiving state funding support the Hayward has an admission charge. The gallery exhibition policy embraces visual art from all periods and past shows have included the works of Leonardo Da Vinci , Edvard Munch and the French Impressionists but recently the programme has tended to concentrate on surveys of contemporary art. Joanna Drew was the founding Director. DESIGN The kinetic light Sculpture , which responds to wind force, on the roof is left from an exhibition in 1971 . The building was originally designed with three projecting high level outdoor terraces for the exhibition of sculpture but the difficulties of access have left these largely unused. In 2003 the foyer of the building was remodelled with a larger glass-fronted foyer, designed by the Haworth Tompkins architectural practice and including a new oval shaped glass pavilion designed by Dan Graham above a relocated cafe. The two upper galleries can use natural light from the glass pyramids on their flat roofs. Three concrete towers run vertically through the middle of the structure and contain the passenger lift, service lift and service duct. The passenger lift tower has the kinetic light sculpture on its roof. The roof terrace at the south end and linking bridge to the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer building is unfortunately closed to the public, which makes impossible some of the more interesting pedestrian circulation opportunities of the original design. The walkway above Belvedere Road widens to the west, following the line of Belvedere Road and accommodating the stairs to the external terrace, but following a different line from the upper gallery walls. The angled plan shape of the concrete sculpture tray in the south corner reflects the change in angle of the site between Waterloo Bridge and Festival Square. In this way, despite its seemingly uncompromising form, the building responds to its site. The high-level walkway system which linked the Hayward to the Hungerford Bridge area was partly removed in 2000, leaving a curious truncated end on Festival Square, and poorer access from Festival Square. This is exacerbated by the positioning of the car park and loading bay entrances, a legacy of the original 1960's design ideas about vertical separation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Among the tricks of the building is the different lines of the walls at ground level and walkway level on this facade. FUTURE The South Bank Centre and Arts Council are considering the future of the Hayward building, and the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room which stand between the Hayward and the Thames. A proposed scheme, designed by Richard Rogers in the early 1990s would have involved covering all three buildings in a great wave-shaped glass roof, which would have linked the Royal Festival Hall to Waterloo Bridge. This did not proceed due to its reliance on a high level of lottery funding and likely high cost. EXTERNAL LINKS
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