Architecture of the welfare state
After the war Britain built new towns, schools and council housing. Brutalism got its name here.
The Festival of Britain in 1951 gave London the Royal Festival Hall, and new towns such as Stevenage and Harlow were founded around London. Alison and Peter Smithson gave the New Brutalism a programme, and the Barbican in the City of London became a whole residential district of concrete with an arts centre at its heart.
Denys Lasdun’s National Theatre on the South Bank was completed in 1976.