All Things Considered

Sandy Wilson
Posted by Simon Lewin

I've just finished listening to this week's "Point of View" on Radio 4 by Lisa Jardine.

It was a great piece covering the work of Sir Colin St. John (Sandy) Wilson who died recently, and the opening of the newly refurbished Festival Hall next weekend.

"Sandy Wilson's art collecting began, as did his career as an architect, around the time of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and its associated building projects - above all the iconic building of London's South Bank, the Festival Hall. Indeed, his first architectural job was in the office of Sir Leslie Martin, the Festival Hall's architect. Laying the foundation stone for the Festival Hall in 1949, the then prime minister Clement Attlee predicted that the exhibition and its festivities would pass into history, but that the concert hall would remain, and around it would rise "buildings worthy to take their place with the best of old London and form part of the replanned London of the future...

... Since 1951, London has indeed learned to love the Royal Festival Hall. I'd like to think that with its Gala reopening we will be celebrating more than just the building itself. We will also be celebrating the humanity and optimism of a generation of architects and artists - many of them directly inspired by Sandy Wilson - who came together in those critical post-war years, and whose work has been under-appreciated for so long."

The Pallant House Gallery in Chichester (pictured) was Sandy Wilson's last project. Designed in association with Long & Kentish, the gallery has won the prestigious 2007 Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries.

You can read Lisa Jardine's "Point of View" on the BBC Radio 4 website.

Posted by Simon Lewin on June 1st, 2007