History

National Concert Hall and conference centre built 1978-1982; designed by the J. Seymour Harris Partnership, Vincent Crofts the architect in charge, Ove Arup & Partners as engineers and Sandy Brown Associates as acoustic consultants.

In 1959 the Arts Council of Great Britain expressed concern that Cardiff, recently made capital of Wales, had no concert venue appropriate for symphony orchestras and advised that one was needed one as soon as possible. In the 1960s Councillor Ron Watkiss oversaw the planning of a scheme announced as ‘Centreplan 70’, which would have seen much of the city centre redeveloped as a new planned capital for Wales, designed for the motor car. Many new amenities were planned including a concert hall, an exhibition and conference centre and pedestrianised shopping arcades. In 1973 an oil crisis and UK stock market crash affected property values and Cardiff’s development partner, Ravenseft Properties, paid £3million compensation to the city rather than proceed with Centreplan 70.

Revised plans for redevelopment now focussed on retail in a much smaller area between Queen St and Working St. During negotiations with a consortium of shops led by the Heron Corporation, Cardiff dropped a planned new library and decided instead to build a concert hall within and on top of the shopping centre development, to be paid for using the compensation money from Ravenseft. Cardiff agreed to employ the same architects as the Heron Corporation so that the concert hall and shopping centre, both later named St David’s, would be well integrated and could be built together.

The architects arranged the polygonal main hall to “ensure the most ideal acoustical conditions” using tiered seating for 2,000 surrounding the stage, a design inspired by the ‘vineyard style’ Berlin Philharmonie built in 1966. The hall was also intended as a national conference centre to attract large business events to the city, incorporating meeting rooms and a restaurant. A foundation stone was laid 21 July 1979 by Charles Prince of Wales.

The hall was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on 15 February 1983, with performances by the Pontarddulais Male Voice Choir and the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra (later renamed the BBC National Orchestra of Wales). The BBC Cardiff singer of the world competition has been held biennially in the hall since it opened and since 1986 it has been the venue for the Welsh Proms. The hall has seen performances by touring orchestras from across the world as well as many popular artists including Iron Maiden, Tina Turner and Johnny Cash.

Exterior

The building occupies a rectangular block running back from Working Street, towards the SW corner of St David’s Shopping Centre. Stylistically a striking example of late brutalism, with its emphasis on materials, texture and construction, achieving expressive forms within the constraints of its site whilst also being sensitive to context at the heart of the historic city.

In-situ concrete frame, with large span steel roof, clad in lead. Main façade to Working Street. Auditorium block to north end, with 4-storey frontage above ground floor shops, comprising 3 3 structural bays, articulated by the grid of the concrete frame, the two upper storeys of the right-hand section canted out. The overall effect is a play of solids and voids achieved by the use of solid infill panels and cladding in pre-cast concrete, horizontal window bands, and recessed balconies. The irregular hexagon of the mansard roof over the auditorium is in two sections: a lower ‘skirt’ rakes back from the wall tops to a recessed band of windows and the mass of the roof rises from this slightly set back base, so that it appears to hover above the main building structure. Staircases and plant rooms project from the roof volume above the SW façade. This runs back at an angle to the south, where the corner of the site is occupied by the lower entrance block with polygonal façade and canted balconies jutting out over recessed entrance. At first floor level, this façade is now partially concealed behind an LED screen installed for the 2008 Olympic handover ceremony, and by partially pigmented glass fins added in 2010.

Structural grid also expressed in side and rear elevations, which though simpler, continue the asymmetrical rhythm of solids and voids that characterises the principal elevation.

Interior

Entrance foyer is the only part of the complex on the ground floor, the rest being above the shopping centre. This determines the internal design, as the space dramatically expands on the upper floors. Architectural character throughout derived from structural concrete, with staircases and escalators cutting through the space to create dramatic angles between the levels, some of which are pierced to enable the interpenetration of space. Open-cell suspended ceilings over principal public spaces, coffered concrete over stairways.

From the second floor upwards, the building’s main volume is occupied by the concert hall, which rises through 3 main public levels from the third floor, with a void beneath at second floor level. Offices, dressing rooms etc wrap around the volume of the hall from the second floor upwards.

The foyer block rises through 5 levels from the ground floor. The entrance foyer itself is a relatively small and low space, with narrow staircase clinging to south wall, and other services (including secondary staircase to west) around the perimeter of the space. Slightly larger first floor restaurant area, the space then fanning out to reach its maximum extent on the second floor. Second and third floors are both essentially foyers, but the third floor gives the principal access to the auditorium, contains its own stage, and is the dominant interior space. To east and west, the ceiling is pierced by large voids, giving dramatic higher spaces that rise through two storeys, and in turn leaving a smaller and more intimate space between the voids at fourth floor level. The greater height of the third floor is exploited in a full-height stained glass window comprising a series of angled panes dominating the eastern elevation behind the stage. It was designed by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen, and was presented to the city of Cardiff by the people of Stuttgart as a symbol of friendship between the two cities. It was unveiled in 1985, and depicts a representation of the Welsh landscape with cultural references including a rugby post.

The concert hall has an irregular hexagonal plan with seating fanning out from the stage and raked main floor in 13 blocks arranged in the ‘vineyard style’ of inter-linked tiers which are symmetrical about the central axis of the space. The lower tier wraps around the stage area to form choir seating. Open-cell suspended ceiling in a series of panels, its form having the effect of increasing the volume of the hall for acoustic purposes; plastered blockwork walls and timber flooring. Spatial arrangement and detail all also contribute to acoustic properties of hall, as vertical steps of seating tiers act as sound reflectors, and some of the seating has high reflective backs. Flexible stage with hydraulically operated sections. Pale wood joinery; the green colour of the upholstery was part of the original design.

The concert organ by Peter Collins is housed in a wooden case designed by Ralph Downes. It is one of the largest pipe-organs in the UK.

Entrance foyer includes several sculptures: Charles, Prince of Wales, by Ivor Robert Jones, in a niche above the foundation stone laid in 1979; Diana, Princess of Wales, by Robert Thomas, installed 1989; and Ron Watkiss sculpted by Chris Kelly, installed 1992.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as a key example of a concert hall, one of the first large scale examples to be built outside London since the early 1950s. The design responds imaginatively to its brief, which was to achieve a multi-functional concert hall on a site shared with a shopping centre in the middle of the city. The chosen design made sensitive use of its brutalist architectural idiom to achieve a building which was assimilated into its urban context externally, and which houses a concert hall with internationally renowned acoustic properties. The hall is a pioneering example of a ‘vineyard style’ concert hall with polygonal shape and seating surrounding the stage arranged in terraces. Also included for its special historic interest as a major building in the post-war redevelopment of Cardiff linked to the city’s new status as capital city of Wales, and for its close historical association with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

St David’s Shopping Centre, which is interlinked with the concert hall, is not of special interest.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
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  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
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  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
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  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
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  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)