Tate Modern

Welcoming more than four million visitors a year, Tate Modern is the world's most popular modern art gallery (the free admission helps), and one of the capital's very best attractions. From the day it opened in 2000, the gallery has received almost as many plaudits for its setting as for its contents. It's housed in a converted 1940s' brick power station, the brooding industrial functionalism of the architecture providing a fitting canopy for the often challenging art within. Through the main entrance you enter a vast space, the Turbine Hall, where a succession of giant temporary exhibitions are staged -- the bigger and more ambitious, the better. Highlights have included covering the floor with 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds (Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei), creating a maze of 14,000 polyethylene boxes (Embankment by Rachel Whiteread), and building a series of metal tubes up to the floors above for visitors to slide down (Test Site by Carsten Höller).

The permanent collection encompasses a great body of modern art dating from 1900 to the present. Spread over three levels, it covers all the big-hitters, including Matisse, Rothko, Pollock, Picasso, Dali, Duchamp, and Warhol, and is arranged according to movements -- surrealism, minimalism, cubism, expressionism, and so on. Free 45-minute guided tours of the collection are given daily at 11am, noon, 2pm, and 3pm. The gallery stays open late on Friday and Saturday, when events, such as concerts and talks, are often put on.

Such has been the gallery's success that a new extension is being built. It will take the form of a giant asymmetrical, brick-and-glass pyramid, which should be completed in 2012.

If this is your day for getting your fill of art, note that you can also visit the Tate Modern's sister gallery, Tate Britain, just upriver, by taking the dedicated Tate to Tate boat (tel. 020/7887-8888) from the pier outside. Appropriately enough, the boat's spotted livery was designed by Damien Hirst, aging enfant terrible of the London modern art scene. The service takes 20 minutes, and runs every 20 minutes during opening times, stopping en route at the London Eye. Tickets cost £5 adults, £2.50 for children under 16.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

Back to Top