Southbank Centre, 70 Years of the Poetry Library

The National Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre celebrated its 70th Anniversary in 2024 and we were commissioned to design a public artwork in celebration. Our response saw an excerpt from the poem written by Lemn Sissay for the occasion reproduced in his own handwriting as a large-scale typographic installation on the facade of the Royal Festival Hall.

Referencing the origins of graffiti as a form of expression available to all, we took care to replicate the idiosyncracies of Sissay’s handwriting with the intention that the artwork felt almost as if the poet himself had painted the words onto the building. This somewhat anarchic language communicates the Southbank Centre’s belief that the Poetry Library, and poetry as whole, should be open and accessible to all.