The refurbishment of London’s Royal Festival Hall (RFH) began on 20 April – and was boosted by the announcement a £5m donation from benefactor, Dame Vivien Duffield’s, Clore Duffield Foundation.

The donation means a total of £73m has so far been raised towards the £90m cost of modernising the RFH.

South Bank board chair, Lord Hollick, said: “I am delighted to announce this generous gift from Dame Vivien Duffield. It’s a major boost to our fundraising campaign for the Royal Festival Hall.

“We will create a world-class venue for London, for our artists and audiences for the 21st century and a place which London will be proud of for many years to come.”

Lord Hollick officially began the renovation work by removing the first piece of the 53-year-old Royal Festival Hall’s boilers.

The refurbishment of the RFH itself will cost £71m and will include acoustic enhancement of the hall, the creation of a new education centre for school and community groups, improving audience comfort with new seating, increased leg room and better heating and ventilation and upgrading stage and technical facilities for performers on the stage and backstage.

The remaining £19m of the £90m total will pay for the new RFH extension building and landscaping and lighting the area around it.

The project has received grants of £25m from Arts Council England and £20m from the Heritage Lottery Fund with a further £5m application currently under consideration.

So far, £9m has been raised from trusts and private donors and from 12,000 members of the audience who have given more than £1m.

A further £19m has been raised from the London Development Agency, the Waterloo Project Board, the Cross River Partnership and various commercial sources.

With initial boiler replacement work now underway, the renovation of the riverfront of the hall at ground level will begin in May.

In summer 2004, work will begin on the RFH extension building, which will be completed before the major refurbishment of the foyers and auditorium begins in July 2006.

The hall is currently scheduled to reopen to the public in late 2006 with the official opening of the auditorium in January 2007. Details: www.rfh.org.uk