Orchestrated public space: the curatorial dimensions of the transformation of London's Southbank Centre

Since 1999, London’s Southbank Centre, an assemblage of arts venues and constituent public spaces in central London, has been undergoing a gradual ‘transformation’ that continues to this day (Southbank Centre, 2016). In addition to works to refurbish the arts venues, this transformation has involved the renewal of the public realm between, around and (most infamously) beneath those venues. Using ethnographic data I seek to unpack the curatorial dimensions of the redesign and reappropriation of public space at this site.