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University of Surrey

The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institution was previously known as Battersea College of Technology and was located in Battersea Park, London. Its roots however, go back to Battersea Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1891 to provide further and higher education in London, including its poorer inhabitants.

The university is a member of the Association of MBAs and is one of four universities in the University Global Partnership Network. It is also part of the SETsquared partnership along with the University of Bath, the University of Bristol, the University of Southampton, and the University of Exeter. The university's main campus is on Stag Hill, close to the centre of Guildford and adjacent to Guildford Cathedral. Surrey Sports Park is situated at the nearby Manor Park, the university's secondary campus. Among British universities, the University of Surrey had the 41st highest average UCAS Tariff for new entrants in 2020.

A major centre for satellite and mobile communications research, the university is in partnership with King's College London and the Dresden University of Technology to develop 5G technology worldwide. It also holds a number of formal links with institutions worldwide, including the Surrey International Institute, launched in partnership with the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. The university owns the Surrey Research Park, providing facilities for over 110 companies engaged in research. Surrey has been awarded three Queen's Anniversary Prizes for its research, with the 2021 Research Excellence Framework seeing the university rise 12 places to 33rd in the UK for overall research quality and 41% of the university's research outputs classified as "world leading". It was named The Sunday Times University of the Year in 2016, was nominated again for the same accolade in 2023, and was The Sunday Times University of the Year for Graduate Employment in 2022.

The chancellor of the university is Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. Current and emeritus academics at the university include ten Fellows of the Royal Society, twenty-one Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, one Fellow of the British Academy and six Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences. Surrey has educated many notable alumni, including Olympic gold medallists, several senior politicians, as well as a number of notable persons in various fields including the arts, sports and academia. Graduates typically abbreviate the University of Surrey to Sur when using post-nominal letters after their degree.

Foundation and early period

The University of Surrey was preceded by the Battersea Polytechnic Institute which was founded in 1891 and admitted its first students in 1894. Its aim was to provide greater access to further and higher education for Londoners, including some of the city's "poorer inhabitants". In 1901, evening classes provided instruction in subjects such as Mechanical Engineering and Building, Electrical Engineering, Chemical and other trades, Physics and Natural Science, Maths, Languages, Commercial subjects, Music and special classes for women including Domestic Economy subjects. Day classes consisted of Art, Science, Women's Subjects and Gymnastics, and classes were also offered in preparation for university and professional examinations. The institute focused on science and technology subjects, and from about 1920 taught University of London students, awarding University of London external degrees.

In 1956, the institute was among the first to receive the designation "College of Advanced Technology" and was renamed Battersea College of Technology. By the beginning of the sixties, the college had virtually outgrown its building in Battersea and had decided to move to Guildford. In addition to this, the Robbins Report of 1963 proposed that the Colleges of Advanced Technology, including Battersea, should expand and become degree-awarding universities. In 1965, the university-designate acquired a greenfield site in Guildford from Guildford Cathedral, Guildford Borough Council and the Onslow Village Trust.

University status

On 9 September 1966 the University of Surrey was established by royal charter. In 1967, on the day before the installation ceremony of the first Chancellor of the university, the Aberfan disaster occurred. Alfred Robens, Baron Robens of Woldingham who was appointed the first Chancellor, was also the chairman of the National Coal Board, and as such was expected to visit the site of the disaster. Controversially, in a decision parodied by Private Eye, Robens continued with the ceremony in Guildford to become Chancellor. During this transition period, visitors to the Battersea campus on 25 October 1968 saw Led Zeppelin perform their very first gig, advertised as being at the university's Victorian Great Hall, on Battersea Park Road. By 1970 the move from Battersea to Guildford was complete.

The university's Battersea Court consists of halls of residence which were named in honour of the university's Battersea origins.

Between 1982 and 2008, the university became the trustee of the building of the Guildford Institute, using parts of the building for its adult education programme and providing a university presence in the heart of Guildford. The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (formerly Associated Examining Board) moved from Aldershot to its own headquarters building on the Stag Hill campus in 1985. The university marked its Silver Jubilee in 1991, an event celebrated by the publishing of Surrey – The Rise of a Modern University by Roy Douglas and by a Service of Thanksgiving in Guildford Cathedral attended by HM The Queen in March 1992.

In 1998, due to the ongoing development in the relationship between the university and the nearby Roehampton Institute, it was decided to form an academic federation. In November 1999, the Privy Council approved the necessary changes to the university's Charter and Statutes and the Roehampton Institute became the University of Surrey Roehampton at the beginning of 2000. Between 2000 and 2004, the university and Roehampton worked together as the Federal University of Surrey. In June 2004, the Privy Council granted Roehampton an independent university title, and it became Roehampton University from 1 August 2004, ending the partnership between the institutions.

The university celebrated its 35th anniversary in May 2002 with a major event in Guildford Cathedral. It was also marked by the unveiling of The Surrey Scholar sculpture (by Allan Sly FBS) to mark the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen and as a gift to the people of Guildford. The Surrey Scholar is at the bottom of Guildford High Street. Understanding the Real World, a visual history of the university, by Christopher Pick, was published to coincide with this anniversary. In 2007, the university saw a major increase in overall applications by 39% compared with the previous year. This was followed by a further increase in applications of 12% in 2008. In October 2008, the university lost out to Royal Holloway in a bid to merge with London medical institute St George's, University of London. From September 2009, the Guildford School of Acting became a subsidiary of the university and relocated from Guildford town centre to the university campus.

In March 2019 the university announced it would have to make £15m worth of cuts owing to the effects of Brexit and anticipated cuts in tuition fees, and was offering redundancy to all staff. Following the announcement, The Stag, published an article titled 'Paygate: The Problem with Surrey's Vice-Chancellor', in which it compared Vice-Chancellor Max Lu's "performance-related bonuses" to the university's actual performance. Soon after, in May 2019, staff and students held a no confidence vote against the university management, with coverage largely focused on Lu's leadership. Of all the unionised staff who voted, 96% gave a vote of no confidence in "the Vice-Chancellor and Executive Board". The all-staff vote was approved by all three trade unions represented at the university, in a meeting held with the largest member attendance seen. Concerns raised by staff specifically include "Lu's language which suggests staff are a cost rather than an asset", according to the University and College Union, while the Students' Union was specifically concerned about the closure of many arts courses at the university despite a "healthy" number of applications for them. Students who wanted a "no" vote hoped this result would make the university management "engage with staff and students and discuss changes".

Main sites
The university began moving in 1968 to a new 30 ha site on Stag Hill in Guildford, adjacent to Guildford Cathedral. Students continued to alternate between the original Battersea campus and the new Guildford campus until 1970. A further 90 ha allocated to the university remained undeveloped until 2005. The BBC's local radio station for Surrey and North-East Hampshire, BBC Surrey, has its studios on the campus. In addition the university has a student-run medium wave radio station, Stag Radio. In September 2009, the Guildford School of Acting moved into a new purpose-built facility on the main Stag Hill campus as part of a strategic merger between the two organisations. The old Sports Centre was converted into the Ivy Arts Centre, a performing arts facility housing a 200-seat theatre and studio and workshop space. In October 2015, the £45m School of Veterinary Medicine was opened by the Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. The new Manor Park campus, designed as a car-free village, is 1.6 km from the Stag Hill campus and on the other side of the A3 trunk road. It combines residences for students and staff, buildings for research and teaching, and sporting facilities.

Sports facilities
In April 2010, a £36 million sports centre named the Surrey Sports Park opened to replace the former UniSport facilities on the Stag Hill Campus. Surrey Sports Park is situated close to the main University campus, on its Manor Park site. It houses a 50-metre swimming pool, three multi-sports halls, six squash courts, a modern gym, three artificial floodlit pitches, outdoor tennis courts, a climbing centre and a coffee shop, bar and restaurant.

The 1,000 seat indoor arena is home to Surrey Scorchers basketball team (formerly Guildford Heat, Surrey Heat and Surrey United), who have been using the venue since 2010 following a move from their previous home at Guildford Spectrum. Surrey Scorchers are one of the leading teams and former winners of the British Basketball League, the country's top division. It also plays host to Surrey Storm netball (formerly Brunel Hurricanes), who also made the move to the Sports Park from Guildford Spectrum in 2010. Surrey Storm are two-time Netball Superleague champions, securing their last title with a 55–53 win over Manchester Thunder at London's Copper Box Arena in the 2016 Grand Final. It played host to all but four matches of the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup (the semi-finals, third place play off and final were held at the Twickenham Stoop). It is also the official training facility for Harlequins rugby club, playing host to their Men's and Women's first teams plus Academy fixtures, and was used as a training base for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, hosting a number of teams including South Africa, Scotland and Italy.

2012 saw Surrey Sports Park host a number of Olympic and Paralympic teams in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games, including delegations from across the globe for swimming, table tennis, basketball and triathlon camps. In 2013, Surrey Sports Park hosted the annual Danone Nations Cup junior football tournament, with fixtures being played on the outdoor pitches through to the finals at Wembley Stadium. In 2017, Surrey Sports Park hosted the Women's Lacrosse World Cup, with over 25 nations competing for the world title in Guildford. All matches took place at the venue, including the finals, with a temporary outdoor stadium erected for the 10-day event.

Structure
The academic activities of the university are divided into the following three faculties:

 * Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
 * School of Economics
 * School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
 * School of Law
 * School of Literature and Languages
 * Department of Music and Media
 * Department of Politics
 * Department of Sociology
 * Surrey Business School
 * Guildford School of Acting

 * Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
 * Department of Chemistry
 * Department of Chemical and Process Engineering
 * Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
 * Department of Computer Science
 * Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
 * Department of Mathematics
 * Department of Mechanical Engineering Sciences
 * Department of Physics
 * Centre for Environment and Sustainability

 * Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
 * School of Biosciences and Medicine
 * School of Health Sciences
 * School of Psychology
 * School of Veterinary Medicine

Governance
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent was installed as Chancellor, a ceremonial non-residential post, in 1977. The university is led at the executive level by the President and Vice-Chancellor, Max Lu. The key bodies in the university governance structure are the council, Senate and executive board. The council is the governing body of the university, responsible for the overall planning and management of the university and to ensure processes are in place to monitor financial and operational controls, and the university's performance against its strategy. The council is composed of no fewer than eleven external members, up to seven ex-officio members and up to three members elected by Senate.

The Senate is the statutory body responsible for governing the university's academic matters, including teaching and research, and the regulation and direction of the education and conduct of students. The composition of the Senate is drawn from the academic staff of the university, together with a number of ex-officio, elected and co-opted members. The Chair of the Senate is the President and Vice-Chancellor of the university. The executive board is the senior advisory body that assists the President and Vice-Chancellor in discharging his executive authority to manage the operations and affairs of the university. It is responsible for advising on all matters relating to the university's strategy and for making recommendations to Council for approval. The above Bodies are supported by a series of Committees that oversee the activities of distinctive administrative and academic areas of the university.

On 3 December 2015 it was announced that Max Lu would become the university's fifth President and Vice-Chancellor, taking up his appointment in April 2016. He succeeded Sir Christopher Snowden who moved to take up the Vice-Chancellorship at the University of Southampton in September 2015. Sir Christopher joined Surrey on 1 July 2005. His predecessors are Patrick J. Dowling (1994–2005), Anthony Kelly (1975–1994) and Peter Leggett, the last Principal of Battersea College of Technology and the university's first Vice-Chancellor.

Educational links
Since its foundation, the university has fostered links with other educational bodies in the local community and region. The university currently validates undergraduate courses at Farnborough College of Technology and postgraduate research programmes at St Mary's University, Twickenham for students entering prior to August 2014.

In 2007, the university and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in Dalian, China, launched the Surrey International Institute, DUFE. The SII at DUFE offers Surrey degrees and dual-degree programmes in China. A placement year link with North Carolina State University was initiated in 2009, where each institution places students from the other with companies located nearby, in the South East of England and the Carolinas, respectively.

The university holds a number of formal links with institutions from around the world to share teaching and research and facilitate staff and student exchanges.
 * 🇧🇷 University of São Paulo, Brazil
 * 🇰🇷 Seoul National University, South Korea
 * 🇺🇸 University of Central Florida, USA
 * 🇵🇰 University of Punjab
 * 🇺🇸 North Carolina State University, USA
 * 🇨🇳 The DUFE—Surrey International Institute (东北财经大学萨里国际学院) is an academic partnership with the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in Dalian, China
 * 🇭🇰 University of Hong Kong
 * 🇸🇬 Nanyang Technological University
 * 🇲🇽 National Autonomous University of Mexico Head Associate; Diego Luiz.
 * 🇦🇹 Modul University Vienna, Austria

Research
The university conducts extensive research on small satellites, with its Surrey Space Centre and spin-off commercial company, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, the University of Surrey received a 5* rating in the categories of "Sociology", "Other Studies and Professions Allied to Medicine", and "Electrical and Electronic Engineering" and a 5* rating in the categories of "Psychology", "Physics", "Applied Mathematics", "Statistics and Operational Research", "European Studies" and "Russian, Slavonic and East European Languages".

The 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) at the University of Surrey opened in September 2015, for the purpose of research for the development of the first worldwide 5G network. It has gained over £40m support from international telecommunications companies including Aeroflex, MYCOM OSI, BBC, BT Group, EE, Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe, Huawei, Ofcom, Rohde & Schwarz, Samsung, Telefonica and Vodafone – and a further £11.6m from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

In addition, the Surrey Research Park is a 28 ha low density development which is owned and developed by the university, providing large landscaped areas with water features and facilities for over 110 companies engaged in a broad spectrum of research, development and design activities. The university generates the third highest endowment income out of all UK universities "reflecting its commercially-orientated heritage."

Admissions
New students entering the university in 2015 had the 14th highest UCAS Points in the UK at 438 points (the equivalent of AAB at A Level and BB at AS Level). According to the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, approximately 8% of Surrey's undergraduates come from independent schools.

For the 2016–17 academic year, the university has a higher proportion of female than male students with a male to female ratio of 45:55 in the population. The undergraduate student body is composed of 73% from the UK, 11% from the EU and 16% from outside of the EU. More students graduate from Surrey with a First Class Honours degree (44.4%) than with a 2:1 degree (40.9%), placing it second amongst mainstream British universities by the proportion of First Class degrees awarded.

Reputation and rankings
The university has consistently been in the top 60 of the three main ranking compilations of universities in the United Kingdom, placing it 39th in The Times and Sunday Times, 34th in The Good University Guide and the Complete University Guide, and 54th in The Guardian University Guide for 2021. International rankings have seen a steady improvement over the past five years. Subjects ranked in the top 20 include Hospitality & Leisure Management and Petroleum engineering. The university was ranked seventh in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2018. In 2019, Surrey was ranked 161-170th in the QS World Employability Rankings, and first in the UK and 12th in the world for research partnerships with employers.

In 1991 the university was granted the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, and in 1996 was awarded a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher & Further Education in recognition of the university's outstanding achievement in satellite engineering and communications, teaching and research by the Centre for Satellite Engineering Research and associated companies. In 1998, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd was awarded the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement, presented in person by the Queen on her second visit to the university, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Kent, chancellor of the university.

The university was awarded a 2002 Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher & Further Education for its research and development on optoelectronic devices and ion beam applications. In July 2007, the university was awarded Fairtrade University status by the Fairtrade Foundation. The university won a 2011 Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher & Further Education for its research into the fields of safe water and sanitation. In 2013, the Electronic Engineering Department of the university won the 2013 Elektra Award University Department of the Year, and judged to be the most innovative and successful in Europe. The university won The Sunday Times University of the Year award 2016. The university won a 2017 Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher & Further Education for "Leading research and teaching in food and nutrition informing public policy on diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and other dietary related issues".

Notable academics
Academics to work at the university include Alf Adams, pioneer of the strained quantum-well laser; Jim Al-Khalili, the nuclear physicist, author and broadcaster; Aleks Krotoski, the technology journalist and broadcaster; Sir Martin Sweeting, founder of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd; Nigel Gilbert, the sociologist pioneer in the use of agent-based models in the social sciences; Joao Santos Silva, who has made fundamental contributions to the gravity model of trade, and Martyn Barrett, who led the development of the Council of Europe's Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture and is a lead expert for the Council of Europe's Education Policy Advisers Network.

The current Director of the university's Advanced Technology Institute, Ravi Silva, is known for his work in Nanotechnology. In 2003, he was awarded the Albert Einstein Silver Medal and the Javed Husain Prize by UNESCO for contributions to electronic devices. The 2011 Clifford Paterson Lecture was given by Silva because of his outstanding contributions to basic science and engineering in the field of carbon nanoscience and nanotechnology. The lecture is given annually on any aspect of engineering. The General Electric Company Limited endowed the lecture in 1975 in honour of Clifford Paterson who undertook the creation of the GEC Research Laboratories in 1919. Other notable academics who have delivered the lecture include Frank Kelly and Richard Friend, both from the University of Cambridge.

Surrey's Centre for Environment and Sustainability (established by Roland Clift in 1992 as the Centre for Environmental Strategy) gained attention with the publication of Prosperity Without Growth in 2009 by University of Surrey academic Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the ESRC Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment. In October 2018 the University of Surrey reported that writer and filmmaker Iain Sinclair had been appointed Distinguished Writer in Residence with their School of Literature and Languages.

On 20 May 2009, Andreas Mogensen, a researcher at the Surrey Space Centre, was announced as a new member of the European Astronaut Corps, part of the European Space Agency, thereby becoming the first Danish astronaut. In February 2011, terrorism and Northern Ireland expert Marie Breen Smyth, joined the politics department, as chair in International Relations. In March 2005, she had given evidence to the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Inquiry into dealing with Northern Ireland's past. Another notable academic was the late translation studies scholar Peter Newmark.

Students' Union
The University of Surrey Students' Union is the sole representative body of Surrey students. They represent students on academic and welfare issues, as well as administering sports clubs and societies. The Union was incorporated as a non-profit charity in July 2011, so any takings from the Union's four commercial outlets are invested in supporting the membership side of the business. Four zones exist within the organisation representing Support, Voice, Community and Activity, with a sabbatical officer managing each one, as well as a president who is a member of the University Council. The Students' Union also organise events on a weekly basis which are held at their venues including Rubix and The Basement for students to take part in.

In 2017 the university was specifically identified in the report by the Free Speech University Rankings as having "unfamiliar" restrictions on free speech because of a collection of its union byelaws regarding university mascot Steve the Stag: the mascot is not allowed to be depicted by students to be drinking, smoking or, as the report and subsequent articles directly quote, "involved in lewd acts". Subsequent editions of the Students' Union Byelaws contained a further explanatory note for this.

Media
StagTV is the television station run by students at the University of Surrey. It is primarily run from offices on the main Stag Hill campus and it also creates content for the Students' Union, through which it is a constituted group, but has editorial independence. Other student media on campus include Stag Radio and The Stag.

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title: University of Surrey


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Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT) within the UK and as the National Theatre of Great Britain internationally, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England. The theatre was founded by the actor Laurence Olivier in 1963, and many well-known actors have performed with it since.

The company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo until 1976. The current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, the National Theatre tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities was suspended in February 2021 over concerns about uncertainty over work permits, additional costs and delays because of Brexit. Permission to add the "Royal" prefix to the name of the theatre was given in 1988, but the full title is rarely used. The theatre presents a varied programme, including Shakespeare, other international classic drama, and new plays by contemporary playwrights. Each auditorium in the theatre can run up to three shows in repertoire, thus further widening the number of plays which can be put on during any one season. However, the post-2020 covid repertoire model became straight runs, required by the imperatives of greater resource efficiency and financial constraint coupled with the preference (and competition for the availability) of creatives working across stage and screen, thus bringing it in line with that of most theatres.

In June 2009, the theatre began National Theatre Live (NT Live), a programme of simulcasts of live productions to cinemas, first in the United Kingdom and then internationally. The programme began with a production of Phèdre, starring Helen Mirren, which was screened live in 70 cinemas across the UK. NT Live productions have since been broadcast to over 2,500 venues in 60 countries around the world. In November 2020, National Theatre at Home, a video on demand streaming service, specifically created for National Theatre Live recordings, was introduced. Videos of plays are added every month, and can be "rented" for temporary viewing, or unlimited recordings can be watched through a monthly or yearly subscription programme.

The NT had an annual turnover of approximately £105 million in 2015–16, of which earned income made up 75% (58% from ticket sales, 5% from NT Live and Digital, and 12% from commercial revenue such as in the restaurants, bars, bookshop, etc.). Support from Arts Council England provided 17% of income, 1% from Learning and Participation activity, and the remaining 9% came from a mixture of companies, individuals, trusts and foundations.

Origins
In 1847, a critic using the pseudonym Dramaticus published a pamphlet describing the parlous state of British theatre. Production of serious plays was restricted to the patent theatres, and new plays were subjected to censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. At the same time, there was a burgeoning theatre sector featuring a diet of low melodrama and musical burlesque; but critics described British theatre as driven by commercialism and a "star" system. There was a demand to commemorate serious theatre, with the "Shakespeare Committee" purchasing the playwright's birthplace for the nation demonstrating a recognition of the importance of "serious drama". The following year saw more pamphlets on a demand for a National Theatre from London publisher Effingham William Wilson. The situation continued, with a renewed call every decade for a National Theatre. Attention was aroused in 1879 when the Comédie-Française took a residency at the Gaiety Theatre, described in The Times as representing "the highest aristocracy of the theatre". The principal demands now coalesced around: a structure in the capital that would form a permanent memorial to Shakespeare; an "exemplary theatre" company producing at the highest level of quality; and a centre from which appreciation of great drama could be spread as part of education throughout the country.

The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened in Stratford upon Avon on 23 April 1879, with the New Shakespeare Company (now the Royal Shakespeare Company, RSC); then Herbert Beerbohm Tree founded an Academy of Dramatic Art at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1904. This still left the capital without a national theatre. A London Shakespeare League was founded in 1902 to develop a Shakespeare National Theatre and – with the impending tercentenary in 1916 of his death – in 1913 purchased land for a theatre in Bloomsbury. This work was interrupted by World War I.

In 1910, George Bernard Shaw wrote a short comedy, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare himself attempts to persuade Elizabeth I of the necessity of building a National Theatre to stage his plays. The play was part of the long-term campaign to build a National Theatre.

Finally, in 1948, the London County Council (LCC) presented a site close to the Royal Festival Hall for the purpose, so the National Theatre Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 16), offering financial support, was passed by Parliament. Ten years after the foundation stone had been laid in 1951, the government declared that the nation could not afford a National Theatre; in response, the LCC offered to waive any rent and pay half the construction costs. The government still tried to apply unacceptable conditions to save money, attempting to force the amalgamation of the existing publicly supported companies: the RSC, Sadler's Wells and Old Vic.

Following some initial inspirational steps taken with the opening of the Chichester Festival Theatre in Chichester in June 1962, the developments in London proceeded. In July 1962, with agreements finally reached, a board was set up to supervise construction, and a separate board was constituted to run a National Theatre Company, which would lease the Old Vic theatre in the interim. The "National Theatre Company" opened on 22 October 1963 with Hamlet, starring Peter O'Toole in the title role. The company was founded by Laurence Olivier, who became the first artistic director of the company. As fellow directors, he enlisted William Gaskill and John Dexter. Among the first ensemble of actors of the company were Robert Stephens, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Lynn Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Colin Blakely and Frank Finlay.

Meanwhile, construction of the permanent theatre proceeded with a design by architects Sir Denys Lasdun and Peter Softley and structural engineers Flint & Neill containing three stages, which opened individually between 1976 and 1977. The construction work was carried out by Sir Robert McAlpine.

The Company remained at the Old Vic until 1976, when construction of the Olivier was complete.

Theatres
The National Theatre building houses three separate theatres. Additionally, a temporary structure was added in April 2013 and closed in May 2016.

Olivier Theatre
Named after the theatre's first artistic director, Laurence Olivier, this is the main auditorium. Modelled on the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, it has an open stage and a fan-shaped audience seating area for 1160 people. A "drum revolve" (a five-storey revolving stage section) extends eight metres beneath the stage and is operated by a single staff member. The drum has two rim revolves and two platforms, each of which can carry ten tonnes, facilitating dramatic and fluid scenery changes. Its design ensures that the audience's view is not blocked from any seat, and that the audience is fully visible to actors from the stage's centre. Designed in the 1970s and a prototype of current technology, the drum revolve and a multiple "sky hook" flying system were initially very controversial and required ten years to commission, but seem to have fulfilled the objective of functionality with high productivity.

Lyttelton Theatre
Named after Oliver Lyttelton, the National Theatre's first board chairman, it has a proscenium arch design and can accommodate an audience of 890.

Dorfman Theatre
Named after Lloyd Dorfman (philanthropist and chairman of Travelex Group), the Dorfman is "the smallest, the barest and the most potentially flexible of the National Theatre houses . . . a dark-walled room" with an audience capacity of 400. It was formerly known as the Cottesloe Theatre (named after Lord Cottesloe, Chairman of the South Bank Theatre Board), a name which ceased to be used with the theatre's closure under the National's NT Future redevelopment.

The enhanced theatre reopened in September 2014 under its new name.

Temporary Theatre
The Temporary Theatre, formerly called The Shed, was a 225-seat black box theatre which opened in April 2013 and featured new works; it closed in May 2016, following the refurbishment of the Dorfman Theatre.

In 2015 British artist Carl Randall painted a portrait of actress Katie Leung standing in front of The Shed as part of the artist's "London Portraits" series, where he asked various cultural figures to choose a place in London for the backdrop of their portraits. Leung explained she chose The Shed as her backdrop because she performed there in the 2013 play The World of Extreme Happiness, and also because "... it's a temporary theatre, it's not permanent, and I wanted to make it permanent in the portrait".

Architecture
The style of the National Theatre building was described by architecture historian Mark Girouard as "an aesthetic of broken forms" at the time of opening. Architectural opinion was split at the time of construction. Even enthusiastic advocates of the Modern Movement such as Nikolaus Pevsner found the Béton brut RAAC concrete both inside and out overbearing. Most notoriously, the future Charles III described the building in 1988 as "a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London without anyone objecting". John Betjeman, a man not noted for his enthusiasm for brutalist architecture, wrote to Lasdun stating ironically that he "gasped with delight at the cube of your theatre in the pale blue sky and a glimpse of St Paul's to the south of it. It is a lovely work and so good from so many angles...it has that inevitable and finished look that great work does."

Despite the controversy, the theatre has been a Grade II* listed building since 1994. Although the theatre is often cited as an archetype of Brutalist architecture in England, since Lasdun's death the building has been re-evaluated as having closer links to the work of Le Corbusier, rather than contemporary monumental 1960s buildings such as those of Paul Rudolph. The carefully refined balance between horizontal and vertical elements in Lasdun's building has been contrasted favourably with the lumpiness of neighbouring buildings such as the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall. It is now in the unusual situation of having appeared simultaneously in the top ten "most popular" and "most hated" London buildings in opinion surveys. A recent lighting scheme illuminating the exterior of the building, in particular the fly towers, has proved very popular, and is one of several positive artistic responses to the building. A key intended viewing axis is from Waterloo Bridge at 45 degrees head on to the fly tower of the Olivier Theatre (the largest and highest element of the building) and the steps from ground level. This view is largely obscured now by mature trees along the riverside walk but it can be seen in a more limited way at ground level.

Foyers and interior spaces
The National Theatre's foyers are open to the public, with a large theatrical bookshop, restaurants, bars and exhibition spaces. The terraces and foyers of the theatre complex have also been used for ad hoc, short seasonal and experimental performances and screenings. The riverside forecourt of the theatre is used for regular season of open-air performances in the summer months.

The Clore Learning Centre is a new dedicated space for learning at the National Theatre. It offers events and courses for all ages, exploring theatre-making from playwriting to technical skills, often led by the NT's own artists and staff. One of its spaces is The Cottesloe Room, so called in recognition of the original name of the adjacent theatre.

The dressing rooms for all actors are arranged around an internal light-well and air-shaft and so their windows each face each other. This arrangement has led to a tradition whereby, on the opening night (known as "Press Night") and closing night of any individual play, when called to go to "beginners" (opening positions), the actors will go to the window and drum on the glass with the palms of their hands.

Backstage tours run throughout the day and the Sherling High Level Walkway, open daily until 7.30 pm, offers visitors views into the backstage production workshops for set construction and assembly, scenic painting and prop-making.

NT Future
2013 saw the commencement of the "NT Future" project; a redevelopment of the National Theatre complex which it was estimated would cost about £80 million.

National Theatre Studio
The Studio building across the road from the Old Vic on The Cut in Waterloo. The Studio used to house the NT's workshops, but became the National's research and development wing in 1984. The Studio building houses the New Work Department, the Archive, and the NT's Immersive Storytelling Studio.

The Studio is a Grade II listed building designed by architects Lyons Israel Ellis. Completed in 1958, the building was refurbished by architects Haworth Tompkins and reopened in autumn 2007.

The National Theatre Studio was founded in 1985 under the directorship of Peter Gill, who ran it until 1990. Laura Collier became Head of the Studio in November 2011, replacing Purni Morrell who headed the Studio from 2006. Following the merge of the Studio and the Literary Department under the leadership of Rufus Norris, Emily McLaughlin became the Head of New Work in 2015.

National Theatre Live
National Theatre Live is an initiative which broadcasts performances of their productions (and from other theatres) to cinemas and arts centres around the world. It began in June 2009 with Helen Mirren in Jean Racine's Phedre, directed by Nicholas Hytner, in the Lyttelton Theatre.

The third season of broadcasts launched on 15 September 2011 with One Man, Two Guvnors with James Corden. This was followed by Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen. The final broadcast of 2011 was John Hodge's Collaborators with Simon Russell Beale. In 2012 Nicholas Wright's play Travelling Light was broadcast on 9 February, followed by The Comedy of Errors with Lenny Henry on 1 March and She Stoops to Conquer with Katherine Kelly, Steve Pemberton and Sophie Thompson on 29 March.

One Man, Two Guvnors returned to cinema screens in the United States, Canada and Australia for a limited season in Spring 2012. Danny Boyle's Frankenstein also returned to cinema screens worldwide for a limited season in June and July 2012.

The fourth season of broadcasts commenced on Thursday 6 September 2012 with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a play based on the international best-selling novel by Mark Haddon. This was followed by The Last of the Haussmans, a new play by Stephen Beresford starring Julie Walters, Rory Kinnear and Helen McCrory on 11 October 2012. William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens followed on 1 November 2012 starring Simon Russell Beale as Timon. On 17 January 2013, NT Live broadcast Arthur Wing Pinero's The Magistrate, with John Lithgow.

The performances to be filmed and broadcast are nominated in advance, allowing planned movement of cameras with greater freedom in the auditorium.

National Theatre Connections
National Theatre Connections is the annual nationwide youth theatre festival run by the National Theatre. The festival was founded in 1995, and features ten new plays for young people written by leading playwrights. Productions are staged by schools and youth groups at their schools and community centres, and at local professional theatre hubs. One of the productions of each play is invited to perform in a final festival at the National Theatre, usually in the Olivier Theatre and Dorfman Theatre.

National Theatre Collection
The National Theatre Collection (formerly called On Demand. In Schools) is the National Theatre's free production streaming service for educational establishments worldwide, which is free to UK state schools. The service is designed for use by teachers and educators in the classroom, and features recordings of curriculum-linked productions filmed in high definition in front of a live audience.

The service was launched initially to UK secondary schools in 2015 with productions for Key Stage 3 pupils and above. In November 2016, the National Theatre launched to service to UK primary schools, adding a number of new titles for Key Stage 2. Productions currently offered by the service include Frankenstein (directed by Danny Boyle, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller), Othello (directed by Nicholas Hytner, starting Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear), Antigone (directed by Polly Findlay, starring Christopher Eccleston and Jodie Whittaker), and Jane Eyre (directed by Sally Cookson).

In 2018, the National Theatre reported that over half of UK state secondary schools have registered to use the service. ''On Demand. In Schools'' won the 2018 Bett Award for Free Digital Content or Open Educational Resources.

In March 2020, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the National Theatre Collection was made available for pupils and teachers to access at home to aid blended learning programmes. In April 2020, six new titles were added to the service to bring the total up to 30 productions. These include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (directed by Benedict Andrews for the Young Vic, starring Sienna Miller and Jack O'Connell) and Small Island (directed by Rufus Norris for the National Theatre).

Public Acts
Public Acts is a community participation programme from the National Theatre working with theatres and community organisations across the UK to create large-scale new work. The first Public Acts production was Pericles in August 2018, at the National Theatre, in the Olivier Theatre. The Guardian described this as 'a richly sung version with brilliant performances from a cast of hundreds.' The second production was As You Like It performed in August 2019 at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch.

Since 2019, Public Acts has been working on a third production in Doncaster in partnership with Cast and six local community partners. The new adaptation of The Caucasian Chalk Circle was originally planned for 2020 but has been postponed, due to COVID-19.

In December 2020, in partnership with The Guardian, Public Acts released an online musical called We Begin Again by James Graham (Quiz) as a music video and a standalone track released by Broadway Records.

River Stage
River Stage is the National Theatre's free outdoor summer festival that place over five weekends outside the National Theatre in its north-east cornersquare. It is accompanied by a number of additional street food stalls and bars run by the NT.

The event features programmes developed by various companies for the first four weekends, with the National Theatre itself programming the fifth weekend. Participating organisations have included The Glory, HOME Manchester, Sadler's Wells, nonclassical, WOMAD, Latitude Festival, Bristol's Mayfest and Rambert. The festival launched in 2015 and is produced by Fran Miller.

Watch This Space
The annual "Watch This Space" festival was a free summer-long celebration of outdoor theatre, circus and dance, which was replaced in 2015 by the River Stage festival.

"Watch This Space" featured events for all ages, including workshops and classes for children and adults. "Watch This Space" had a strong national and international relationships with leading and emerging companies working in many different aspects of the outdoor arts sector. Significant collaborators and regular visitors included Teatr Biuro Podrozy, The Whalley Range All Stars, Home Live Art, Addictive TV, Men in Coats, Upswing, Circus Space, Les Grooms, StopGAP Dance Theatre, metro-boulot-dodo, Avanti Display, The Gandinis, Abigail Collins, The World-famous, Ida Barr (Christopher Green), Motionhouse, Mat Ricardo, The Insect Circus, Bängditos Theater, Mimbre, Company FZ, WildWorks, Bash Street Theatre, Markeline, The Chipolatas, The Caravan Gallery, Sienta la Cabeza, Theatre Tuig, Producciones Imperdibles and Mario Queen of the Circus.

The festival was set up by its first producer Jonathan Holloway, who was succeeded in 2005 by Angus MacKechnie.

Whilst the Theatre Square space was occupied by the Temporary Theatre during the NT Future redevelopment, the "Watch This Space" festival was suspended. but held a small number of events in nearby local spaces. In 2013 the National announced that there would be a small summer festival entitled "August Outdoors" in Theatre Square. Playing Fridays and Saturdays only, the programme included The Sneakers and The Streetlights by Half Human Theatre, The Thinker by Stuff & Things, H2H by Joli Vyann, Screeving by Urban Canvas, Pigeon Poo People by The Natural Theatre Company, Capses by Laitrum, Bang On!, Caravania! by The Bone Ensemble, The Hot Potato Syncopators, Total Eclipse of the Head by Ella Good and Nicki Kent, The Caravan Gallery, Curious Curios by Kazzum Theatre and The Preeners by Canopy.

Artistic directors

 * Sir Laurence Olivier (1963–1973)
 * Sir Peter Hall (1973–1988)
 * Sir Richard Eyre (1988–1997)
 * Sir Trevor Nunn (1997–2003)
 * Sir Nicholas Hytner (2003–2015)
 * Rufus Norris (2015–2025)

Laurence Olivier became artistic director of the National Theatre at its formation in 1963. He was considered the foremost British film and stage actor of the period, and became the first director of the Chichester Festival Theatre – there forming the company that would unite with the Old Vic Company to form the National Theatre Company. In addition to directing, he continued to appear in many successful productions, not least as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. In 1969 the National Theatre Company received a Special Tony Award which was accepted by Olivier at the 23rd Tony Awards. He became a life peer in 1970, for his services to theatre, and stepped down in 1973.

Peter Hall took over to manage the move to the South Bank. His career included running the Arts Theatre between 1956 and 1959 – where he directed the English language première of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. He went on to take over the Memorial Theatre at Stratford, and to create the permanent Royal Shakespeare Company, in 1960, also establishing a new RSC base at the Aldwych Theatre for transfers to the West End. He was artistic director at the National Theatre between 1973 and 1988. During this time he directed major productions for the Theatre, and also some opera at Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House. After leaving, he ran his own company at The Old Vic and summer seasons at the Theatre Royal, Bath also returning to guest direct Tantalus for the RSC in 2000 and Bacchai in the National Theatre's Olivier and Twelfth Night in the Dorfman some years later. In 2008, he opened a new theatre, The Rose, and remained its Director Emeritus until his death in 2017.

One of the National's associate directors under Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, became artistic director in 1988; his experience included running the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and the Nottingham Playhouse. He was noted for his series of collaborations with David Hare on the state of contemporary Britain.

In 1997, Trevor Nunn became artistic director. He came to the National from the RSC, having undertaken a major expansion of the company into the Swan, The Other Place and the Barbican Theatres. He brought a more populist style to the National, directing My Fair Lady, Oklahoma! and South Pacific.

In April 2003, Nicholas Hytner took over as artistic director. He previously worked as an associate director with the Royal Exchange Theatre and the National. A number of his successful productions have been made into films. In April 2013 Hytner announced he would step down as artistic director at the end of March 2015.

Amongst Hytner's innovations were NT Future, the National Theatre Live initiative of simulcasting live productions, and the Entry Pass scheme, allowing young people under the age of 26 to purchase tickets for £7.50 to any production at the theatre.

Rufus Norris took over as artistic director in March 2015. He is the first person since Laurence Olivier to hold the post without being a University of Cambridge graduate. In June 2023 it was announced that Norris would be stepping down in 2025.

1963–1973

 * In 1962, the company of The Old Vic theatre was dissolved, and reconstituted as the "National Theatre Company" opening on 22 October 1963 with Hamlet. The company remained based in The Old Vic until the new buildings opened in February 1976. The National Theatre Board was established in February 1963, formally gaining the Royal prefix in 1990.

 * Hamlet, directed by Laurence Olivier, with Peter O'Toole in the title role and Michael Redgrave as Claudius (1963)
 * The Recruiting Officer, directed by William Gaskill with Laurence Olivier as Captain Brazen, Maggie Smith as Sylvia and Robert Stephens as Captain Plume (1963).
 * Othello, directed by John Dexter, with Laurence Olivier in the title role, Frank Finlay as Iago and Maggie Smith as Desdemona (1964)
 * The Royal Hunt of the Sun by Peter Shaffer, directed by John Dexter (1964); the National's first world premiere
 * Hay Fever, directed by Noël Coward starring Edith Evans as Judith, Maggie Smith as Myra, Derek Jacobi as Simon, Barbara Hicks as Clara, Anthony Nicholls as David, Robert Stephens as Sandy, Robert Lang as Richard, and Lynn Redgrave as Jackie (1964).
 * Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Franco Zeffirelli with Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, Albert Finney, Michael York and Derek Jacobi among others (1965).
 * Miss Julie by August Strindberg, directed by Michael Elliott with Albert Finney and Maggie Smith in a double bill with Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer, directed by John Dexter with Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith. (1965/66)
 * As You Like It directed by Clifford Williams, the all-male production with Ronald Pickup as Rosalind, Jeremy Brett as Orlando, Charles Kay as Celia, Derek Jacobi as Touchstone, Robert Stephens as Jaques (1967)
 * Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, directed by Derek Goldby, with John Stride and Edward Petherbridge (1967)
 * The Dance of Death by August Strindberg, with Laurence Olivier as Edgar, Geraldine McEwan as Alice and Robert Stephens as Kurt (1967)
 * Oedipus by Seneca translated by Ted Hughes, directed by Peter Brook, with John Gielgud as Oedipus, Irene Worth as Jocasta (1968)
 * The Merchant of Venice, directed by Jonathan Miller, with Laurence Olivier as Shylock and Joan Plowright as Portia (1970)
 * Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Ingmar Bergman, with Maggie Smith as Hedda (1970)
 * Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill, directed by Michael Blakemore, with Laurence Olivier as James Tyrone (1971)
 * Jumpers by Tom Stoppard, directed by Peter Wood, starring Michael Hordern and Diana Rigg (1972)
 * The Misanthrope by Molière, translated by Tony Harrison, directed by John Dexter with Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg (1973–74)

1974–1987

 * The Tempest with John Gielgud as Prospero, directed by Peter Hall (1974)
 * Eden End by J.B. Priestley, with Joan Plowright as Stella and Michael Jayston as Charles (1974)
 * No Man's Land by Harold Pinter, directed by Peter Hall, with Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud (1975)
 * Illuminatus!, an eight-hour five-play cycle from Ken Campbell's The Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool (1977)
 * Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Peter Hall (1977)
 * Lark Rise by Keith Dewhurst, directed by Bill Bryden (1978)
 * Tales from the Vienna Woods by Ödön von Horváth, translated by Christopher Hampton, directed by Maximilian Schell, with Stephen Rea and Kate Nelligan
 * Plenty by David Hare, directed by the author, with Stephen Moore and Kate Nelligan (1978)
 * Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, directed by Peter Hall, with Paul Scofield and Simon Callow (1979–80)
 * Galileo, by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Howard Brenton directed by John Dexter with Michael Gambon (1980)
 * The Romans in Britain by Howard Brenton, directed by Michael Bogdanov, subject of an unsuccessful private prosecution by Mary Whitehouse (1980)
 * The Oresteia by Aeschylus, translated by Tony Harrison, directed by Peter Hall (1981)
 * A Kind of Alaska, one-act play by Harold Pinter, directed by Peter Brook, with Judi Dench. Inspired by Awakenings, by Oliver Sacks. (1982)
 * Guys and Dolls, the National's first musical, directed by Richard Eyre, starring Bob Hoskins, Julia McKenzie, Ian Charleson, and Julie Covington (1982)
 * Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, directed by Bill Bryden (1983)
 * Jean Seberg, musical with a book by Julian Barry, lyrics by Christopher Adler, and music by Marvin Hamlisch; directed by Peter Hall (1983)
 * Fool for Love by Sam Shepard, starring Ian Charleson and Julie Walters, directed by Peter Gill (1984)
 * The Mysteries from medieval Mystery plays in a version by Tony Harrison, directed by Bill Bryden (1985)
 * Pravda by Howard Brenton and David Hare, directed by David Hare, with Anthony Hopkins (1985)
 * The American Clock by Arthur Miller, directed by Peter Wood (1986)
 * Antony and Cleopatra directed by Peter Hall, with Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench (1987)
 * Happy Birthday, Sir Larry directed by Mike Ockrent and Jonathan Myerson, with a cast including Peggy Ashcroft, Peter Hall, Antony Sher, Albert Finney (31 May 1987) an 80th Birthday Tribute to Sir Laurence Olivier

1988–1997

 * Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Howard Davies, starring Ian Charleson and Lindsay Duncan (1988)
 * Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega, translated by Adrian Mitchell, directed by Declan Donnellan (1989)
 * Hamlet, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Judi Dench, later Ian Charleson, directed by Richard Eyre (1989)
 * The Voysey Inheritance, starring Jeremy Northam, directed by Richard Eyre
 * Richard III starring Ian McKellen and directed by Richard Eyre (1990)
 * Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, directed by Steven Pimlott (British premiere) (1990)
 * The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett, directed by Nicholas Hytner, starring Nigel Hawthorne (1991)
 * Angels in America by Tony Kushner, directed by Declan Donnellan (1991–92)
 * Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Nicholas Hytner (1993)
 * An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley, directed by Stephen Daldry (1992)
 * Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, and The Absence of War, by David Hare, directed by Richard Eyre (1993)
 * Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Trevor Nunn (1993)
 * Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, directed by Declan Donnellan (1993)
 * Hedda Gabler starring Fiona Shaw, directed by Deborah Warner (1993)
 * Les Parents Terribles by Jean Cocteau, directed by Sean Mathias (1994)
 * Women of Troy by Euripides, directed by Annie Castledine, starring Josette Bushell-Mingo, Rosemary Harris and Jane Birkin (1995)
 * A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, directed by Sean Mathias, with Judi Dench (1995)
 * Anna Karenina adapted by Helen Edmundson, with Anne-Marie Duff (1996)
 * King Lear directed by Richard Eyre, with Ian Holm (1997)
 * The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Frank McGuinness, directed by Simon McBurney (1997)

1998–2002

 * Copenhagen by Michael Frayn, directed by Michael Blakemore (1998)
 * Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, directed by Trevor Nunn, with Maureen Lipman and Hugh Jackman (1998)
 * Our Lady of Sligo by Sebastian Barry, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, with Sinéad Cusack (1998)
 * Candide by Leonard Bernstein, directed by John Caird assisted by Trevor Nunn (1999)
 * The Merchant of Venice directed by Trevor Nunn, with Henry Goodman (1999)
 * Summerfolk by Maxim Gorky, directed by Trevor Nunn (1999)
 * Honk!, Laurence Olivier Award winner (1999)
 * Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, directed by John Caird (1999)
 * Albert Speer by David Edgar, with Alex Jennings (2000)
 * Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall directed by Roger Michell, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bill Nighy and Andrew Lincoln (2000)
 * The Island by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, directed by Peter Brook and performed by Kani and Ntshona (2000)
 * Far Side of the Moon written, directed and performed by Robert Lepage (2001)
 * Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones directed by John Caird, with Simon Russell Beale (2001)
 * South Pacific by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, directed by Trevor Nunn, with Philip Quast who won the 2002 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical and Lauren Kennedy (2001)
 * The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare directed by Nicholas Hytner, with Alex Jennings and Phil Daniels (2001)
 * Vincent in Brixton by Nicholas Wright, directed by Richard Eyre, with Clare Higgins (2002)
 * The Coast of Utopia, a trilogy by Tom Stoppard, comprising: Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage, directed by Trevor Nunn, with computerised video designs by William Dudley (2002)
 * Anything Goes by Cole Porter, directed by Trevor Nunn, with John Barrowman and Sally Ann Triplett (2002)
 * Dinner by Moira Buffini, with Harriet Walter, Nicholas Farrell and Catherine McCormack, directed by Fiona Buffini (2002)
 * A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, with Glenn Close, Iain Glen and Essie Davis, directed by Trevor Nunn (2002)

2003–2014

 * Henry V by William Shakespeare, directed by Nicholas Hytner starring Adrian Lester (2003)
 * Jerry Springer: The Opera, a musical by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas (2003)
 * His Dark Materials, a two-part adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel directed by Nicholas Hytner starring Anna Maxwell Martin, Dominic Cooper, Patricia Hodge and Niamh Cusack (2003)
 * The History Boys by Alan Bennett, directed by Nicholas Hytner, starring Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour and Dominic Cooper (2004)
 * Coram Boy by Helen Edmundson, with Bertie Carvel and Paul Ritter (2005–2006)
 * Laurence Olivier Celebratory Performance directed by Nicholas Hytner and Angus MacKechnie. A one-off tribute to Lord Laurence Olivier, the National's first director, in his centenary year and starring Richard Attenborough, Claire Bloom, Rory Kinnear, and Alex Jennings (23 September 2007)
 * War Horse based on a novel by Michael Morpurgo, adapted by Nick Stafford, directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, presented in association with Handspring (2007–2009)
 * Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Nicholas Hytner, with Simon Russell Beale and Zoë Wanamaker (2007–2008)
 * Never So Good by Howard Brenton, directed by Howard Davies with Jeremy Irons (2008)
 * Mother Courage and Her Children, by Bertolt Brecht, with Fiona Shaw (2009)
 * Phèdre featuring Helen Mirren, Margaret Tyzack and Dominic Cooper, directed by Nicholas Hytner (2009)
 * The Habit of Art, by Alan Bennett, with Richard Griffiths, directed by Nicholas Hytner(2010)
 * Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller (2011)
 * One Man, Two Guvnors, based on Servant of Two Masters by Richard Bean, with James Corden, directed by Nicholas Hytner (2011)
 * London Road, a musical by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork, directed by Rufus Norris (2011)
 * The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens, adapted from the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon, with Luke Treadaway, Nicola Walker, Niamh Cusack and Paul Ritter (2012).
 * Othello by William Shakespeare with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear, directed by Nicholas Hytner (2013)
 * National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage. Celebrating the 50th anniversary, a selection of scenes from various productions in the National Theatre's history, featuring Angels in America, One Man, Two Guvnors, London Road, Jerry Springer: The Opera and Guys and Dolls, featuring Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Adrian Lester, Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, Rory Kinnear, Helen Mirren and Alex Jennings. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and designed by Mark Thompson(2013)
 * King Lear by William Shakespeare, with Simon Russell Beale, directed by Sam Mendes (2014)

2015–present

 * Everyman adapted by Carol Ann Duffy, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, directed by Rufus Norris (2015)
 * People, Places & Things by Duncan MacMillan, directed by Jeremy Herrin, starring Denise Gough (2015)
 * Cleansed by Sarah Kane, directed by Katie Mitchell (2016)
 * The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan, directed by Carrie Cracknell starring Helen McCrory (2016)
 * Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, directed by Michael Longhurst, starring Lucian Msamati and Adam Gillen (2016 and 2018)
 * Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Ivo van Hove, starring Ruth Wilson, a re-working of the production previously staged at the Toneelgrope Amsterdam and New York Theatre Workshop (2016)
 * Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, final text adapted by Robert Nemiroff, directed by Yaël Farber, starring Danny Sapani and Siân Phillips (2016)
 * Angels in America by Tony Kushner, directed by Marianne Elliott, starring Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, James McArdle, Russell Tovey and Nathan Lane (2017)
 * Follies, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman, directed by Dominic Cooke, starring Imelda Staunton, Janie Dee, Philip Quast and Tracie Bennett (2017; return engagement in 2019)
 * Beginning by David Eldridge, directed by Polly Findlay (2017)
 * Network, directed by Ivo van Hove, based on the Sidney Lumet film, adapted by Lee Hall, starring Bryan Cranston (2017)
 * John by Annie Baker, directed by James Macdonald (2018)
 * Nine Night by Natasha Gordon, directed by Roy Alexander Weise, starring Cecilia Noble (2018)
 * Translations by Brian Friel, directed by Ian Rickson, starring Colin Morgan and Ciarán Hinds (2018)
 * Julie by Polly Stenham, directed by Carrie Cracknell, starring Vanessa Kirby and Eric Kofi Abrefa (2018)
 * An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Ned Bennett, a co-production with Orange Tree Theatre (2018)
 * The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power, directed by Sam Mendes, starring Adam Godley, Ben Miles, and Simon Russell Beale, a co-production with Neal Street Productions (2018)
 * Pericles by William Shakespeare, adapted by Chris Bush, directed by Emily Lim, the first Public Acts production (2018)
 * Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, directed by Simon Godwin, starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo (2018)
 * Hadestown, music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell, directed by Rachel Chavkin (2018)
 * When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other: Twelve Variations on Samuel Richardson's Pamela by Martin Crimp, directed by Katie Mitchell, starring Cate Blanchett and Stephen Dillane (2019)
 * The Ocean at the End of the Lane based on a novel by Neil Gaiman (2019)
 * The Crucible by Arthur Miller, directed by Lyndsey Turner and designed by Es Devlin (2022)
 * Standing at the Sky's Edge book by Chris Bush with songs by Richard Hawley (2023)
 * Dear England by James Graham directed by Rupert Gould (2023)
 * The Witches (2023–2024)
 * The House of Bernarda Alba (2023–2024)
 * Dear Octopus (2024) directed by Emily Burns

Royal patrons

 * Queen Elizabeth II 1974 – 2019
 * Meghan, Duchess of Sussex January 2019 – February 2021
 * Queen Camilla March 2022 – present

title: Royal National Theatre


text:
Topic map

A topic map is a standard for the representation and interchange of knowledge, with an emphasis on the findability of information. Topic maps were originally developed in the late 1990s as a way to represent back-of-the-book index structures so that multiple indexes from different sources could be merged. However, the developers quickly realized that with a little additional generalization, they could create a meta-model with potentially far wider application. The ISO/IEC standard is formally known as ISO/IEC 13250:2003.

A topic map represents information using
 * topics, representing any concept, from people, countries, and organizations to software modules, individual files, and events,
 * associations, representing hypergraph relationships between topics, and
 * occurrences, representing information resources relevant to a particular topic.

Topic maps are similar to concept maps and mind maps in many respects, though only topic maps are ISO standards. Topic maps are a form of semantic web technology similar to RDF.

Ontology and merging
Topics, associations, and occurrences can all be typed, where the types must be defined by the one or more creators of the topic map(s). The definitions of allowed types is known as the ontology of the topic map.

Topic maps explicitly support the concept of merging of identity between multiple topics or topic maps. Furthermore, because ontologies are topic maps themselves, they can also be merged thus allowing for the automated integration of information from diverse sources into a coherent new topic map. Features such as subject identifiers (URIs given to topics) and PSIs (published subject indicators) are used to control merging between differing taxonomies. Scoping on names provides a way to organise the various names given to a particular topic by different sources.

Current standard
The work standardizing topic maps (ISO/IEC 13250) took place under the umbrella of the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 committee (ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 34, Working Group 3 – Document description and processing languages – Information Association). However, WG3 was disbanded and maintenance of ISO/IEC 13250 was assigned to WG8.

The topic maps (ISO/IEC 13250) reference model and data model standards are defined independent of any specific serialization or syntax.
 * TMRM Topic Maps – Reference Model
 * TMDM Topic Maps – Data Model

Data format
The specification is summarized in the abstract as follows: "This specification provides a model and grammar for representing the structure of information resources used to define topics, and the associations (relationships) between topics. Names, resources, and relationships are said to be characteristics of abstract subjects, which are called topics. Topics have their characteristics within scopes: i.e. the limited contexts within which the names and resources are regarded as their name, resource, and relationship characteristics. One or more interrelated documents employing this grammar is called a topic map."

XML serialization formats
Note that XTM 1.0 predates and therefore is not compatible with the more recent versions of the (ISO/IEC 13250) standard.
 * In 2000, Topic Maps was defined in an XML syntax XTM. This is now commonly known as "XTM 1.0" and is still in fairly common use.
 * The ISO standards committee published an updated XML syntax in 2006, XTM 2.0 which is increasingly in use today.

Other formats
Other proposed or standardized serialization formats include:
 * CXTM – Canonical XML Topic Maps format (canonicalization of topic maps)
 * CTM – a Compact Topic Maps Notation (not based on XML)
 * GTM – a Graphical Topic Maps Notation

The above standards are all recently proposed or defined as part of ISO/IEC 13250. As described below, there are also other, serialization formats such as LTM, AsTMa= that have not been put forward as standards.

Linear topic map notation (LTM) serves as a kind of shorthand for writing topic maps in plain text editors. This is useful for writing short personal topic maps or exchanging partial topic maps by email. The format can be converted to XTM.

There is another format called AsTMa which serves a similar purpose. When writing topic maps manually it is much more compact, but of course can be converted to XTM. Alternatively, it can be used directly with the Perl Module TM (which also supports LTM).

The data formats of XTM and LTM are similar to the W3C standards for RDF/XML or the older N3 notation.

Topic Maps API
A de facto API standard called Common Topic Maps Application Programming Interface (TMAPI) was published in April 2004 and is supported by many Topic Maps implementations or vendors:
 * TMAPI – Common Topic Maps Application Programming Interface
 * TMAPI 2.0 – Topic Maps Application Programming Interface (v2.0)

Query standard
In normal use it is often desirable to have a way to arbitrarily query the data within a particular Topic Maps store. Many implementations provide a syntax by which this can be achieved (somewhat like 'SQL for Topic Maps') but the syntax tends to vary a lot between different implementations. With this in mind, work has gone into defining a standardized syntax for querying topic maps:
 * ISO 18048: TMQL – Topic Maps Query Language

Constraint standards
It can also be desirable to define a set of constraints that can be used to guarantee or check the semantic validity of topic maps data for a particular domain. (Somewhat like database constraints for topic maps). Constraints can be used to define things like 'every document needs an author' or 'all managers must be human'. There are often implementation specific ways of achieving these goals, but work has gone into defining a standardized constraint language as follows:
 * ISO 19756: TMCL – Topic Maps Constraint Language

TMCL is functionally similar to RDF Schema with Web Ontology Language (OWL).

Earlier standards
The "Topic Maps" concept has existed for a long time. The HyTime standard was proposed as far back as 1992 (or earlier?). Earlier versions of ISO 13250 (than the current revision) also exist. More information about such standards can be found at the ISO Topic Maps site.

RDF relationship
Some work has been undertaken to provide interoperability between the W3C's RDF/OWL/SPARQL family of semantic web standards and the ISO's family of Topic Maps standards though the two have slightly different goals.

The semantic expressive power of Topic Maps is, in many ways, equivalent to that of RDF, but the major differences are that Topic Maps (i) provide a higher level of semantic abstraction (providing a template of topics, associations and occurrences, while RDF only provides a template of two arguments linked by one relationship) and (hence) (ii) allow n-ary relationships (hypergraphs) between any number of nodes, while RDF is limited to triplets.

title: Topic map


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Saint Anthony Falls

Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony (Owámniyomni, lit. 'whirlpool' ), located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, various dams were built atop the east and west faces of the falls to support the milling industry that spurred the growth of the city of Minneapolis. In 1880, the central face of the falls was reinforced with a sloping timber apron to stop the upstream erosion of the falls. In the 1950s, the apron was rebuilt with concrete, which makes up the most visible portion of the falls today. A series of locks were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s to extend navigation to points upstream.

The falls were renamed from their Dakota title in 1680 by Father Louis Hennepin after his patron saint, St. Anthony of Padua. The towns of St. Anthony and Minneapolis, which had developed on the east and west sides of the falls, respectively, merged in 1872 to fully use the power of the falls for milling operations. From 1880 to about 1930, Minneapolis was known as the "Flour Milling Capital of the World".

Today, the falls are defined by the spillway, the upper dam and the locks, located just downstream of the 3rd Avenue Bridge, and the Lower Lock and Dam, just upstream of the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge. These locks were built as part of the Upper Mississippi River 9-Foot Navigation Project. The area around the falls is designated the St. Anthony Falls Historic District and features a 1.8 mi self-guided walking trail with signs explaining the area's past.

History
The falls hold cultural and spiritual significance for native tribes who frequented and lived in the area. The falls is an important and sacred site to the Mdewakanton Dakota and they called the Mississippi River, hahawakpa, "river of the falls". The falls (Haha) themselves were given specific names, mnirara "curling waters", owahmenah "falling waters", or owamni, "whirlpool" (mniyomni in the Eastern Dakota dialect and owamniyomni in the Teton Dakota (Lakota) dialect). Dakota associate the falls with legends and spirits, including Oanktehi, god of waters and evil, who lived beneath the falling water. A small island in the stream, called Spirit Island, was once a nesting ground for eagles that fed on fish below the falls. Dakota people camped on Nicollet Island upstream of the falls to fish and to tap the sugar maple trees.

Since the cataract had to be portaged, the area became one of the natural resting and trade points along the Mississippi between Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples. The Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) term was recorded as "kakabikah" (gakaabikaa, "split rock" or more descriptively, gichi-gakaabikaa, "the great severed rock" which referenced the jagged chunks of limestone constantly eroding by the falls).

In 1680, the falls became known to the Western world when they were observed and published in a journal by Father Louis Hennepin, a Catholic friar of Belgian birth, who had earlier brought the Niagara Falls to the world's attention via a publication. Hennepin named them the Chutes de Saint-Antoine or the Falls of Saint Anthony after his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. Later explorers to document the falls include Zebulon Montgomery Pike and Jonathan Carver, the first Englishman to undertake an exploration of the west. According to the John Carter Brown Library, "Carver's purpose was to map the land, to befriend the native Americans [sic], and to discover the Northwest passage. His journey began in 1766 and, in some ways, was the precursor of the Lewis and Clark expedition; his book was the first popular American travel book." Carver created this early image, an engraving of the falls, in 1778.

In 1817, Major Stephen Harriman Long headed a military excursion up the Mississippi River to the Falls of St. Anthony near the confluence with the Minnesota River. As a result of his recommendations, the Army established Fort Snelling to guard against Indian incursions against settlers in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Long recorded his experiences of the expedition in a journal, which was first published as Voyage in a Six-Oared Skiff to the Falls of St. Anthony, by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1860. In his journal, Long described the "majestic cataract" of the falls and said that "the murmuring of the cascade, the roaring of the river, and the thunder of the cataract, all contributed to render the scene the most interesting and magnificent of any I ever before witnessed."

Following the establishment of Fort Snelling in 1820, the falls became an attraction for tourists, writers, and artists who sought inspiration, even if Hennepin's descriptions were not as majestic as hoped for. By the 1850s a romantic "Indian legend" had become associated with the falls (first noted in Long's 1817 journal ), describing a wife whose husband had taken a second bride. The offended first wife placed her child (or children) in a canoe and paddled toward the falls, plunging herself and her offspring to certain death as the husband looked on helplessly.

By the 1860s, industrial waste had filled the area and marred the falls' majesty. Further competition over the power of the falls on both banks of the river led to the Eastman tunnel disaster in 1869 which could have destroyed the falls. The disaster was fixed with a dike under the falls.

Industry
The first private land claim at the falls was made by Franklin Steele in 1838 — though he did not obtain financing for development until 1847, in the form of $12,000 for a nine-tenths stake in the property. On May 18, 1848, President James K. Polk approved the claims made in St. Anthony, and Steele was able to build his dam on the east side of the river above the Falls, blocking the east channel. The dam extended diagonally into the river 700 ft, was 16 ft high, and was secured to the limestone riverbed. Its thickness tapered from 40 wide at its base to 12 ft wide at the top. Steele dispatched logging crews to the Crow Wing River in December 1847 to supply pine for the sawmill, and by September 1, 1848, sawing commenced using two up-down saws. He was able to sell the lumber readily, supplying construction projects in the booming town. The new community at the Falls attracted entrepreneurs from New England, many of whom had experience in lumber and milling. He had hired Ard Godfrey to help build and run the first commercial sawmill at the Falls. Godfrey knew the most efficient ways to use natural resources, like the falls, and the great pine forests, to make lumber products. The house built in 1848 in St. Anthony for Godfrey is the oldest  remaining wood frame house in the Twin Cities. Steele had the town platted in 1849, and it incorporated in 1855.

By 1854, 300 squatters occupied the west bank of the river, and in 1855, Congress recognized the squatters' right to purchase the land they had claimed. The west side quickly developed scores of new mills and consortia. They built a dam diagonally into the river to the north, which, along with Steele's dam created the inverted V-shape, still apparent today. Steele created the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company in 1856 with three New York financiers, Davis, Gebhard, and Sanford. The company struggled for several years, due to poor relations with the financiers, a depression, and the Civil War. In 1868, the firm reorganized with new officers including John Pillsbury, Richard and Samuel Chute, Sumner Farnham, and Frederick Butterfield. As Minneapolis (and its former neighbor across the river, St. Anthony) developed, the water power at the falls became a source of power for several industries including textile mills, wool, machinery, paper, and wood products, of which the North Star Woolen Mill was successful. Sawmills made the falls a major lumber producing area, with the mills largely built on platforms above the limestone cap forming the falls. But the dominant industry became flour milling.

The falls industrialization was also a problem. Logs, sometimes a hundred at a time, escaped from log booms and hammered the falls. Diversion of water left parts of the limestone cap dry, increasing weathering effects. Shafts and tunnels from sawmills and other users weakened the limestone and its sandstone foundation, accelerating the falls' upriver erosion to 26 ft per year between 1857 and 1868. The falls quickly approached the edge of the limestone cap; once the limestone had completely eroded away, the falls would degenerate into sandstone rapids unsuitable for waterpower. To protect the falls and stop upstream progression a protective wood timber apron was built from the edge of the falls sloping downstream. The apron dissipated the energy of the falling water and moved it away from the base of the falls. It also protected from errant logs. An apron built in 1866 lasted until 1867. The Corps of Engineers completed one in 1880 that lasted until destroyed in 1952. It was replaced with a concrete apron.

The usual flour milling techniques did not work well for "spring wheat", which is the only kind that could be dependably grown on the rapidly expanding wheat farms in Minnesota and the Dakotas. In the late 1860s, major milling innovations at the falls were a "middlings purifier" and "gradual-reduction" grinding, both borrowed from Europe. Metal rollers replaced grindstones. The changes not only solved the spring wheat problem but produced high quality flour in a milling process that was highly profitable. As the result of the new technology, flour mills began to dominate the falls after 1870.

Millers on the Minneapolis side formed a consortium to extract power with the "Lowell model" in which water was supplied in a large headrace "power canal" connecting to the millpond above the falls and extending 950 ft parallel to the river below the falls. Mills built on both sides of the power canal diverted upper-level water into waterwheel-equipped vertical shafts (driven through the limestone bedrock into the soft, underlying sandstone) and then through horizontal tailrace tunnels to the falls' lower level. This system was very effective and mills lined the canal. "turning the west side of the river into the country's most densely industrialized, direct-drive waterpower district." The mills on the St. Anthony (east) side of the river were less-well organized for harnessing the power, and therefore industry developed at a slower pace on that side. But the Pillsbury A-Mill, built on the east bank and completed in 1881, was the world's largest flour mill for 18 years. It produced about 1/3 as much flour as the entire west side. The mills at the falls were very large and substantially automated. "By the end of the century, they had created the country's greatest waterpower industrial district, which was also the country's leading flour milling center from 1880 to 1930."

By the early 1900s, three companies controlled 97% of the falls flour production. They were the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company (later Pillsbury Flour Mills Company and now General Mills), the Washburn-Crosby Company (later General Mills), and Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company (later Standard Milling Company)." The Pillsbury and Washburn-Crosby companies were started at the falls.

1869 collapse of the Eastman tunnel
The early dams built to harness the waterpower exposed the limestone to freezing and thawing forces, narrowed the channel, and increased damage from floods. A report in 1868 found that only 1100 ft of the limestone remained upstream, and if it were eroded away, the falls would turn into a rapids that would no longer be useful for waterpower. Meanwhile, as the result of a lawsuit, the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company approved a plan for the firm of William W. Eastman and John L. Merriam to build a tailrace tunnel from below the falls, under Hennepin Island, under the riverbed to Nicollet Island. Nicollet Island is 700 ft or more above the falls. The tailrace tunnel would allow waterpower development at the Island. This plan met with disaster on October 5, 1869, when the limestone cap was breached.

The leak turned into a torrent of water coming out the tunnel. The water blasted Hennepin Island, causing a 150 ft section to collapse into the tunnel. Believing that the mills and all the other industries around the falls would be ruined, hundreds of people rushed to view the impending disaster. Groups of volunteers started shoring up the gap by throwing trees and timber into the river, but that was ineffective. They then built a huge raft of timbers from the milling operations on Nicollet Island. This worked briefly, but also proved ineffective. A number of workers worked for months to build a dam that would funnel water away from the tunnel. The next year, an engineer from Lowell, Massachusetts, recommended completing a wooden apron, sealing the tunnel, and building low dams above the falls to avoid exposing the limestone to the weather.

The fix for the tunnel disaster was a concrete dike constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The dike was just above the falls and Hennepin Island, from right under the limestone cap down as much as 40 ft, and 1,850 ft long across the entire river channel. The dike, completed 1876, cut off the tunnel and any possible future bypass channels. A separate problem was damage to the falls and its upstream progression. To stop the damage the Corps built a protective wood timber apron completed 1880. The Corps also built two low dams, completed by 1880, on top of the limestone cap to keep the cap wet. The federal government spent $615,000 on this effort, while the two cities spent $334,500.

Hydroelectric power production
Hydroelectric power production also developed early at the falls. In 1881, the Pillsbury "A" Mill added a Brush Electric arc light plant powered from their turbines; some other mills did so also. In 1882, a Brush hydroelectric central station plant was in use, the third central station in the country. (Edison's Pearl Street Station also started producing electric power in 1882 - using steam.) The waterpower companies encouraged or developed hydroelectric plants. Major plants were completed in 1894. 1895, and 1908. (The first large scale production of electricity in the world was at the Adams (Tesla) plant at Niagara Falls starting 1895). As waterpower became available it was used to generate electricity. After the third plant was in operation in 1908, 45% of the waterpower being used was for hydroelectric. One of the historic St. Anthony Falls plants is still operating.

River flow is variable and flour production may have to be decreased with low flow rates. In the winter, mills may shut down because there is not enough water flow. So many mills supplemented water power with steam, starting with a 1,400 HP steam engine at the Pillsbury A mill in 1884. By 1892 ten of the fifteen mills had supplementary steam power. As electricity developed as a power source, some electricity was generated from steam to run equipment. Using electricity from the St. Anthony Falls hydroelectric plants was not very practical because those plants competed for the same water flow. But about 1910 electric power was available from St. Croix Falls and it was used in combination with waterpower and steam, and electricity eventually took over.

The Mississippi river flow rate changes based on how much rain there is its watershed. Starting 1880, dams were created on the Mississippi further north to create reservoirs - water could be released to increase flow at times when it would be low. This helped both waterpower industries and river navigation. The dams were at Lake Winnibigoshish, Leech Lake, Pokegama Falls, Pine River, Sandy Lake, and Gull Lake.

Locks and dams
St. Paul was effectively the upper limit of commercial navigation on the Mississippi. High bluffs on both sides of the river from the River Waren falls and the falls progressing up the Mississippi, made access difficult. In addition the rapid descent of the river from the falls to below what is now the Ford Dam (lock and dam No. 1) made the river shallow and fast running. The Ford dam, completed 1917, extended navigation to a little above the Washington Ave. bridge, with a shipping terminal on the west bank. Locks completed in 1956 at the lower dam and around the falls in 1963 extended navigation out of the river gorge to north Minneapolis. Since those two locks are smaller than most of the locks on the rest of the river, the practical limit for many commercial tows was still further downriver. In 2015, the Upper St. Anthony Falls lock was permanently closed to stop the spread of invasive species, namely Asian carp.

The St. Anthony Falls and the Upper Dam. The upper dam ("horseshoe dam"), built on top of the limestone cap forming the falls, is successor to dams built in the 1850s. The dam increases the head for two hydroelectric plants and increases the water level above the falls. The water level rise from the falls is 35 ft and from the dam is 14 ft. The lift at this lock, 49 ft, is the highest of any lock on the Mississippi. The upper pool has a normal capacity of 3150 acre.ft and a normal level of 799 feet (244 m) above sea level. The navigation channel required alteration of the historic Stone Arch Bridge, which now has a metal truss section to allow ships to pass below.

The Lower St. Anthony Falls Dam, located about a half mile below the falls, was completed 1897 with a water level rise of 20 ft. The dam was built for hydroelectric production, and included a power plant. There never was a falls at this location. The dam was rebuilt and locks added in 1956. The rise was increased to 25 ft. The new dam is a gravity-type hydro-electric dam 26 ft in height, consisting of a 275 foot long concrete spillway with four tainter gates. The upper pool (sometimes called the intermediate pool) has a normal capacity of 375 acre.ft and a normal level of 750 feet (229 m) above sea level.

The upper and lower locks are each 56 feet wide by 400 feet long.

The current around the spillway/falls is often swift and dangerous. In 1991, a small boat drifted too close and fell over one part of the dam. One person on board was killed, and one had to be rescued by helicopter. Rescues at the site are usually much less dramatic, but continue to happen occasionally.

Geology
Geologists say that the falls first appeared roughly 12,000 years ago about 10 mi downstream at the confluence of the glacial River Warren (at present-day Fort Snelling). Estimates are that the falls were about 180 ft high when the River Warren Falls receded past the confluence of the Mississippi River and the glacial River Warren. Over the succeeding 10,000 years, the falls moved upstream to its present location. The water churning at the bottom of the falls ate away at the soft sandstone, eventually breaking off the hard limestone cap in chunks as the falls receded. From its origins near Fort Snelling, St. Anthony Falls relocated upstream at a rate of about 4 ft per year until it reached its present location in the early 19th century. In the 6 miles (9.7 km) from the top of the falls (not including the horseshoe dam) to below the Ford dam the river drops 97 feet (30 m), all of it the remnant of the original 180 feet (55 m) falls. The limestone cap gets thinner upriver from the falls, and the cap disappears about 1,200 ft upstream. In a short time, geologically speaking, the falls will reach the end of the cap and become a rapids. Tributaries such as Minnehaha Creek begot their own waterfalls as the Mississippi River valley was cut into the landscape.

When Father Louis Hennepin documented the falls he estimated the falls' height to be 50 to 60 ft. Later explorers described it as being in the range of 16 to 20 ft high. The height of the falls, not including the upper dam, is now 35 ft. The river descends downstream from the falls, which might add another 10 ft to the falls where they were when Hennepin saw them.

The geological formation of the area consisted of a hard thin layer of Platteville Formation, a limestone, overlaying the soft St. Peter Sandstone subsurface. These layers were the result of an Ordovician Period sea which covered east-central Minnesota 500 million years ago.

Historic and commemorative markers
The area around the river was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the St. Anthony Falls Historic District in 1971. It includes 8th Avenue Northeast extending downstream to 6th Avenue Southeast and approximately two city blocks on both shoreline.

The falls are a contributing resource to the Historic District. The district's archaeological record is one of the most-endangered historic sites in Minnesota. The National Register of Historic Places is facilitated by the National Park Service. The national significance of the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District is a major reason why the National Park Service's Mississippi National River and Recreation Area was established along the Mississippi River in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metropolitan area.

A Heritage Trail plaque nearby says,

"For untold generations of Indian people the Mississippi River was an important canoe route. To pass around the falls, the Dakota (Sioux) and Ojibway (Chippewa) used a well-established portage trail. Starting at a landing below the site now occupied by the steam plant, the trail climbed the bluff to this spot. From here it followed the east bank along what is now Main Street to a point well above the falls."

Water Works park overlooking the falls opened in 2021.

In popular culture
Along with Yosemite Valley, Saint Anthony Falls held a particular attraction for painters of 19th-century landscapes. The falls were a popular tourist attraction at the time, and were depicted in many paintings, including works by Albert Bierstadt, Henry Lewis, and George Catlin.

Mark Twain visited the falls as part of his journeys recounted in the 1883 memoir Life on the Mississippi; the original printing of the book included a drawing by John Harley of the falls. Twain noted that the waterfall's industrial capacity was "of inestimable value, business-wise, though somewhat to the damage of the Falls as a spectacle, or as a background against which to get your photograph taken".

References cited

 * The application from the City of Minneapolis to the National Park Service to place the St. Anthony Falls Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places (it was placed there). Consists of the original 1971 section and a much longer 1991 addition. Has extensive information on the significance of the district and descriptions of "contributing resources".

 * A heavily footnoted standard history of the development at the Falls.
 * A heavily footnoted standard history of the development at the Falls.

title: Saint Anthony Falls