Archive Sessions: Meltdown
Explore our archive of Meltdown memorabilia and learn how to arrange, catalogue and repackage fascinating objects from 30 years of the iconic festival.
Each year we welcome an iconic artist to the Southbank Centre to curate their own festival, showcasing their interests and influences on our stages. Our Meltdown archive holds material from every year, from Grace Jones’ outfits to photographs of John Peel and programmes from Massive Attack’s concert.
But what goes into the making of this brilliant, unique festival? Join us in the archive to find out as we research material and create cataloguing entries for items in the collection, ensuring that material preserved for the future is accessible to all.
You are welcome to come to as many sessions as you like. We encourage you to book your dates/tickets in advance as tickets go quickly and we want you to get stuck into the project and get the most out of the experience.
Our archive holds 1.4 kilometres of memories about performances, exhibitions and events from the creation of the Southbank Centre site in 1951 to the present day, including documents, oral histories, programmes, artworks and objects from across the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery.
Need to know
If you feel you can’t attend due to travel expenses, please get in touch at [email protected] and we will try to support you.
For your visit
This event is held at the Archive Studio Southbank Centre
Our Archive Studio is located on Level 2 of our Royal Festival Hall.
Exhibitions at the Archive Studio are open six days a week.
Tuesday, 10am – 6pm
Wednesday – Sunday, 10am – 11pm
Monday, closed.
Plan your visit
The Archive Studio is located in our Royal Festival Hall which is also home to our largest auditorium as well as The Clore Ballroom, National Poetry Library, Members’ Lounge, Festival Bar & Kitchen, Ballroom Cafe and Skylon restaurant.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.