Tate Modern

Tate Modern occupies the former Bankside Power Station on the south bank of the Thames in London, a vast industrial building completed in 1963 and decommissioned in 1981. Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron transformed it into an art museum that opened in 2000, retaining the 35-metre Turbine Hall as a dramatic entrance and exhibition space while converting the former boiler house into galleries above. A second building, the Blavatnik Building (formerly the Switch House), was added in 2016, bringing the total exhibition space to over 21,000 square metres. The permanent collection spans art from 1900 to the present day, arranged thematically rather than chronologically across both buildings. Major works by Picasso, Matisse, Rothko, Mondrian, Duchamp, Pollock, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, and many others are displayed across the permanent galleries, though the collection rotates regularly. The Turbine Hall hosts large-scale commissioned installations through the Hyundai Commission programme; past works have included Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project, Carsten Holler's slides, and Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds — all free to enter. From the 10th-floor viewing terrace of the Blavatnik Building, panoramic views take in St Paul's Cathedral, the City skyline, Southwark Bridge, and the Millennium Bridge. Walking across the Millennium Bridge from St Paul's Underground provides an iconic arrival route to the gallery and frames one of London's most photographed urban views. Friday and Saturday evening openings until 10PM draw a younger, more local audience and are significantly less crowded than weekend afternoons.