The National Theatre is marking 50 years of its South Bank home with a free outdoor installation telling 50 stories from the building’s history.
Stories Start Here: 50 Stories for 50 Years will open on the Queen’s Walk in October 2026. The wooden structure is inspired by the amphitheatre seating of the Olivier Theatre and faces the building itself.
Visitors will be able to sit and listen to memories, anecdotes and reflections from actors, writers, directors, designers, past and present staff, and audience members.
A story station inside the theatre will print the stories on eco-friendly paper as a memento, and the recordings will be available worldwide through the Bloomberg Connects app.
Sir Robert McAlpine Cranes and scaffolding above the part-built concrete frame of the National Theatre on the South Bank in 1970. There are lots of levels and sections. Behind the construction site are other buildings. Sir Robert McAlpine
Construction of the theatre began in 1969, and the building took seven years to complete.
The theatre is also launching an apprenticeship named after its architect, Sir Denys Lasdun, offering training in the mechanical and electrical engineering skills needed to maintain the building.
It will run through the NT Skills Centre, which the theatre said trains thousands of people across the UK each year in partnership with Bank of America.
Indhu Rubasingham, director and co-chief executive, said the building had been “a place where artists, audiences and communities have come together to share stories”.
The company was based at the Old Vic for 13 years before moving into its purpose-built home, which was constructed between 1969 and 1976.
The Grade II listed building divided opinion when it first opened but is now widely regarded as a landmark of brutalist architecture, with its textured concrete, riverside terraces and three auditoriums.
Executive director and co-chief executive Kate Varah said the theatre faced significant capital and modernisation needs, as did many other major cultural buildings in the UK.
The installation has been created by the design collective la cuarta piel and co-curated by the Financial Times theatre critic Sarah Hemming.
The anniversary is supported by Arup and Sir Robert McAlpine, both of whom worked on the original construction.
Credit: BBC
