History of Tate | Tate History of Tate Freedom of information When Tate first opened its doors to the public in 1897 it had just one site, displaying a small collection of British artworks. Today Tate has four major sites and the national collection of British art from 1500 to the present day and international modern and contemporary art, which includes nearly 70,000 artworks. A number of new developments are planned for Tate Modern , Tate Britain and Tate St Ives to ensure the galleries continue to expand. A family of galleries Henry Tate In 1889 Henry Tate, an industrialist who had made his fortune as a sugar refiner, offered his collection of British art to the nation. There was no space for it in the National Gallery and the creation of a new gallery dedicated to British art was seen as a worthwhile aim and the search for a suitable site began. This gallery would house not only Henry Tate’s gift but also the works of British artists from various other collections.

Sir John Everett Millais, Bt Ophelia 1851-2 View the main page for this artwork The gallery at Millbank, London In 1892 the site of a former prison, the Millbank Penitentiary, was chosen for the new National Gallery of British Art, which would be under the Directorship of the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. The prison, used as the departure point for sending convicts to Australia, had been demolished in 1890. Sidney R.J. Smith was chosen as the architect for the new gallery. His design is the core building that we see today, a grand porticoed entranceway and central dome which resembles a temple. The statue of Britannia with a lion and a unicorn on top of the pediment at the Millbank entrance emphasised its function as a gallery of British art. The gallery opened its doors to the public in 1897, displaying 245 works in eight rooms from British artists dating back to 1790. Growth of the gallery Since its original opening, the Millbank site has had seven major building extensions.

In its first 15 years the Millbank site more than doubled in size, including the addition of seven rooms designed by the architect W.H. Romaine-Walker and funded by the arts and antique dealer J.J.(Sir Joseph) Duveen, built to display the Turner Bequest . By 1917, the remit of the gallery changed. It was made responsible for the national collection of British art from 1500 to the present day and international modern and contemporary art Romaine-Walker was again commissioned to design the new Modern Foreign Galleries, which were funded by Joseph Duveen’s son, Lord Duveen. These opened in 1926 and a year later a series of murals by Rex Whistler were unveiled in the restaurant. Tate Gallery In 1932, the gallery officially adopted the name Tate Gallery, by which it had popularly been known as since its opening. In 1937, the new Duveen Sculpture Galleries opened.

Funded by Lord Duveen and designed by John Russell Pope, Romaine-Walker and Gilbert Jenkins, these two 300 feet long barrel-vaulted galleries were the first public galleries in England designed specifically for the display of sculpture. By this point, electric lighting had also been installed in all the rooms enabling the gallery to stay open until 5pm whatever the weather. In 1955, Tate Gallery became wholly independent from the National Gallery and discussions began on an extension that would increase the its exhibition space. A major extension in the north-east corner, designed by Richard Llewelyn-Davies opened in 1979. In the same year, the gallery took over the adjacent disused military hospital, enabling the building of the new Clore Gallery, designed by Sir James Stirling and funded by the Clore Foundation . It opened in 1987 and went on to win a Royal Institute of British Architects award the following year. The Tate Liverpool gallery building, on the Albert Dock Tate Liverpool In the 1980s Alan Bowness , then director of Tate, decided to create a ‘Tate of the North’, as the project became known.

This would be a gallery with a distinct identity, dedicated to showing modern art and encouraging a new, younger audience through an active education programme. A warehouse at the disused Albert Dock in Liverpool was chosen as the site for the new gallery. The dock, once a bustling site crammed with rich cargos from Asia, tea, silk, tobacco and spirits, was derelict. In 1981 the dockyard underwent a rejuvenation, with the Maritime Museum leasing one of the warehouses and restaurants and bars opening. In 1985, James Stirling was commissioned to design the new Tate Gallery at Liverpool. His designs left the exterior of the brick and stone building built over a colonnade of sturdy Doric columns almost untouched, but transformed the interior into an arrangement of simple, elegant galleries suitable for the display of modern art. It opened to the public in May 1988. 2008 marked the year Liverpool was named European Capital of Culture. To celebrate this, in 2007 the gallery hosted the Turner Prize , the first time the competition was held outside London.

more than 600,000 visitors a year visit Tate Liverpool , cementing its position as a venue for major European exhibitions of modern art. Tate St Ives St Ives, a small Cornish town on the southwest coast of England, perhaps seems an unlikely site for a major art gallery. However, its artistic connections date back to Victorian times when numerous artists came to St Ives to paint, attracted by its special quality of light. Artists associated with the town include Barbara Hepworth , Naum Gabo , Alfred Wallis and Mark Rothko . Tate had formed a close link with St Ives when it took over the management of the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1980. By the middle of the decade it was decided a gallery should be built there to show works by artists who had lived or worked in St Ives, loaned from the collection . In 1988, a building was chosen on the site of a former gasworks overlooking Porthmeor Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. The architects Eldred Evans and David Shalev were selected for designs that echoed the shapes of the former gasworks, including the rotunda that forms the heart of the gallery.

Building work began in 1991, funded by donations from the local community, the Henry Moore Foundation and the European Regional Development Fund. The Tate Gallery, St Ives opened in June 1993 and in just six months welcomed over 120,000 visitors – 50,000 more than the original target for the entire year. Since then, the gallery has been an outstanding success with an average of 240,000 visitors per year. An exciting development is now planned for Tate St Ives , which will provide better exhibition and display spaces, new education areas and improved visitor facilities, allowing greater scope for understanding the heritage of the St Ives artists’ colony. Tate Modern In December 1992 the Tate Trustees announced their intention to create a separate gallery for international modern and contemporary art in London. The former Bankside Power Station was selected as the new gallery site in 1994. The following year, Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron were appointed to convert the building into a gallery. That their proposal retained much of the original character of the building was a key factor in this decision.

The iconic power station, built in two phases between 1947 and 1963, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. It consisted of a stunning turbine hall, 35 metres high and 152 metres long, with the boiler house alongside it and a single central chimney. However, apart from a remaining operational London Electricity sub-station the site had been redundant since 1981. In 1996 the design plans were unveiled and, following a £12 million grant from the English Partnerships regeneration agency, the site was purchased and work began. The huge machinery was removed and the building was stripped back to its original steel structure and brickwork. The turbine hall became a dramatic entrance and display area and the boiler house became the galleries. Since it opened in May 2000, more than 40 million people have visited Tate Modern . It is one of the UK’s top three tourist attractions and generates an estimated £100 million in economic benefits to London annually. In 2009 Tate embarked on a major project to develop Tate Modern.

Working again with Herzog & de Meuron, the transformed Tate Modern will make use of the power station’s spectacular redundant oil tanks, increase gallery space and provide much improved visitor facilities. Tate Modern lit up at night, 2000 A family of galleries With the creation of the new gallery at Bankside, the gallery at Millbank was able to return to its original function as the national gallery of British art. In preparation for this, a major Centenary Development project was completed, providing the site with ten new galleries, five refurbished galleries and a dramatic new entrance on Atterbury Street. In 2000, the four galleries were re-branded with the opening of the new gallery at Bankside: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. A number of building projects are now underway to further develop and expand the galleries. Tate Modern London Art Galleries, Art History & Styles of Art - Art.com Wiki Top Picture: Tate Modern London, 2001 ( source ; attribution: Hans Peter Schaefer, ) The Tate Modern is a spectacular gallery in London that houses international contemporary and modern art. The gallery building is a redesigned power station with many original features integrated into the new design.

Art Galleries Industrialist Henry Tate donated his British art collection to the British nation in 1889. It was apparent the National Gallery couldn’t hold the entire collection, so a new gallery was built to be dedicated to British art, including the Tate collection. A former prison called the Millbank Penitentiary was the site chosen for the new gallery, which was designed by Sidney R. J. Smith, and it was under the directorship of the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. The central dome and grand entrance are part of Smith’s original design. The National Gallery of British Art opened to the public in 1897. Its eight rooms showcased 245 British works dating from 1790. Within fifteen years, the gallery’s size more than doubled. Seven extensions have been added to the original building, with seven of the rooms being designed by architect W.H. Romaine-Walker. The national collection of British art dating from 1500 and the international contemporary and modern art was moved to the gallery by 1917. Romaine-Walker was hired a second time to build the Modern Foreign Galleries, which opened in 1926.

Arts and antique dealer J.J. Duveen and his son, Lord Duveen, were responsible for funding the gallery’s growth, and in 1937, the new Duveen Sculpture Galleries were opened. These galleries were designed by Romaine-Walker and Gilbert Jenkins to display sculpted works. By this time, electric lighting had been installed. The museum had officially become known as the Tate Gallery , and in 1955, it became independent from the National Gallery of British Art. In 1979, another extension was added to the gallery, and the new Clore Gallery, designed by Sir James Stirling, was also added. The Clore Gallery won a Royal Institute of British Architects award following its 1987 opening. Director Alan Bowness took on the project of building the Tate Liverpool, which was to house modern art for a new generation, in 1980. Stirling was again commissioned for the Tate Gallery Liverpool in 1985, and the gallery opened three years later.

Liverpool officially became the European Capital of Culture in 2008, and the Tate Liverpool began hosting the Turner Prize, bringing more than 600,000 visitors to the gallery each year. St. Ives, a Cornish coastal town in England, had been a popular setting for artists since Victorian times. Architects Eldred Evans and David Shalev were commissioned to build a new Tate Gallery in St. Ives to feature the work of artists who had lived or visited the town, and the Tate Gallery, St. Ives opened its doors in 1993. The Tate Trustees elected to build a separate Tate Gallery for international contemporary and modern art in London in 1992. They chose the Bankside Power station as the new site in 1994. Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron were commissioned to redesign the power station into the new Tate Modern London. The original building’s design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was integrated into the new design. With a grant from the English Partnerships regeneration agency, work began on the Tate Modern London in 1996. The grand entrance and display room of the Tate Modern are conversions of the turbine hall of the power station.

The Tate Modern opened in May of 2000 and is one of the top three UK tourist attractions. Contents Tate Modern - Reinventing a power plant (Essay) | Art Museum | London Reinventing a Power Plant Tate Modern is Britain’s national museum of modern art in LondonThe building which since 2000 it has been the Tate Modern gallery is located on the south bank of the Thamesin the Bankside district of London is a remarkable, powerful and dramatic combination of old and the newarchitecture providing 10,000m 2 of gallery space. It is housed in the former Bankside Power Station which wasoriginally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (November,9 ,1880—February 8, 1960) was an english architect also known for hiswork on such buildings as Liverpool Cathedral, a matching library for the University of Cambridge and thefamous British red telephone box. He came from a family of famous architects, being the son of George GilbertScott (junior), grandson of Sir George Gilber Scott, nephew of John Oldrid Scott, and brother of Adrian Gilber Scott. He is also the father of architect Richard Gilbert Scott.

Scott was noted for his blending of Gothictradition with modernism, making what might have been functionally designed buildings into popular landmarks.The London Power Company had commissioned a new electricity generating station at Battersea and in 1930commissioned Scott as a consultant to make the inevitably massive architecture more appealing. Scott choseexternal bricks and put some detailing on the sheer walls, then remodelled the four corner chimneys so that theyresembled classical columns. Battersea Pwer Station, completed in 1933 but disused since 1982, remains one of the most conspicuous industrial buildings in London.The building is brick-clad steel structure, 200 m long, constructedfrom more than 4.2 million bricks, with a substantial centralchimney of 99 m. The height of the central chimney was limited tothis height in order to be lower than the dome of St Paul's Cathedralon the opposite side of the river.The station was commissioned following a power shortage in 1947and Scott's design was completed and accepted within a year,despite strong local opposition.Construction work was in two phases and was not completed until1963.

The western portion of the building was completed first andstarted generating power in 1952. The final structure roughlydivided the building into three - the huge main turbine hall in thecentre, with the smaller boiler room to one side and the switchingroom to the other. The oil-fired station had four generators. Risingoil prices made the station uneconomic, resulting in its closure in1981.For many years Bankside Power station was at great risk of beingdemolished by developers. Many people campaigned for the building to be saved and put forward suggestions for possible newuses. An application to list the building was refused.In the spring of 1993 the building's fate looked doomed, contractors had already knocked a large hole in theside of the building and started removing much of the redundant plant. The BBC television programme 'Onefoot in the Past' focused on the building's impending threat. The reporter Dan Cruikshank gave an impassioned plea for the building to be saved.In April 1994 the Tate Gallery announced that Bankside would be the home for the new Tate Modern. In July of the same year an international competition was launched to select an architect for the new gallery.

In January1995 Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Herzog & de Meuron were announced as the winning architects. Herzog & de Meuron is a Swiss architect firm with an international reputation, founded in 1978. HdeM's earlyworks were reductivist pieces of modernity that registered on the same level as the minimalist art. However,their recent work at Tokyo, Barcelona and Beijing Olympics Stadium suggest a change of attitude.Though their commitment to the primacy of materiality shows through all their projects, the manipulation of form has gone from boxy “modernism” to volumetric prisms of equal if not greater presence.The architectsoften cite Joseph Beyus as an enduring artistic inspiration and collaborate with different artists on eacharchitectural project. Their success can be attributed to their skills in revealing unfamiliar or unknownrelationships through familiar materials.The £134 million conversion to the Tate Modern started in June 1995 with the removal of the remainingredundant plant. The conversion was completed in January 2000. The most obvious external change is the blocky two-story glass extension on one half of the roof.

Much of the internal structure remains, including thecavernous main turbine hall, which retains the overhead travelling crane. A substation is still on site.Scott's other London power station is atBattersea and is widely considered amore iconic design, with its four towers.Battersea Power Station was proposedfor the Tate Modern but due to financialconstraints and less dilapidation thesmaller Bankside building was chosen.As a building, the Tate Gallery onMillbank has not been much admired, 'anunfortunate choice', observed NikolausPevsner of its nineteenth-centuryarchitect, Sidney Smith. 'He used theaccepted Late Victorian grand manner but neither with discretion nor withoriginality. In 1957 when Pevsner waswriting, the style was not one, in anycase, that commanded admiration. His views were echoed by fellow Modernists, but also by much more recentcritics.In March 2002, after a long gestation, the gallery was split into two. British art from 1500 to the present daystayed at Millbank in the renamed Tate Britain; international modern and contemporary collections weretransferred to Tate Modern on Bankside.

Greatly acclaimed, this monument at the south end of the Foster bridgehas great public presence (unlike its counterpart facing the Thames with Smith's oddly proportioned andtentative Corinthian portico. But its inert interior with regimented galleries, incomprehensible circulation andsome dismal lighting, is dispiriting.Exactly the reverse is true of Tate Britain's interior. Order, grand airy galleries, changing volumes and quantitiesof natural light together create an infinitely more agreeable experience. This is particularly so since completionof new galleries and a new entrance by John Miller & Partners. The expansion, opening the Tate up to the west,aerates and discreetly modernizes the place -- adding greatly to its pleasure and civilization. Not least, it makesit possible to exhibit works from the reserve collections, hitherto stored away in vaults.Expansion by ad hoc stages has been typical of the Tate's history. Opened in 1897, it was designed by Smith tohouse the art collection of Sir Henry Tate, a nineteenth-century sugar magnate, and built on the site of theMillbank Penitentiary. Smith was followed in the early part of the twentieth century by W. H.

Romaine Walker who designed galleries for the Dutch art dealer, Joseph Duveen, and, later, his son; and subsequently in 1937 bythe American classicist, John Russell Pope, responsible with Walker for the Duveen sculpture galleries whichmark the central axis running north from Smith's entrance rotunda through a domed octagon. The Tate's statusas a national gallery, as well as its neglect of modern continental art at this point, probably explained the choiceof architect. (Pope went on to design his great classical essay, the American National Gallery of Art inWashington.) More From This User Tate Modern, London Tate Modern Tate Modern has an excellent collection of modern art, from 1900 until now. It is housed in a former power station. Since its opening in 2000 it has become one of Londen's most popular museums. The Building The galleries of Tate Modern are housed in an enormous brick building that was once the home of the Bankside Power Station. Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, it was built between 1947 and 1963.

Its striking tower is ninety-nine meters tall; regulations stipulated that it was not allowed to be taller than the dome of the St. Paul's Cathedral just across the river Thames. A New Museum At the end of the 1990s the Tate Gallery - now known as Tate Britain - was struggling with a lack of space due to its quickly expanding collection of modern art. So it was decided to split up the collection and search for a new location to house the modern works of art. The power station, which was located at the riverbank of the Tate Modern Thames was chosen as it had been abandoned in 1981 and offered plenty of space. A competition was held to find an architect for the reconversion of the building. A plan by the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron was selected out of 148 entries. The museum opened at this location in May 2000 and has become quite a popular tourist attraction thanks to its eclectic collection of modern art. Also, entrance to many of the collections and exhibits at Tate Modern is free, which adds to its popularity. The Galleries Visitors heading to Tate Modern are treated to a real plethora of modern art.

On the first floor, Turbine Hall, guests will find specially commissioned works that change from year to year. On the next level, a small exhibition space profiles changing works of contemporary artists, both regional and international. Summertime, Jackson Pollock On level 3, galleries include Abstraction, Expressionism, and Abstract Expressionism, and guests will view masterpieces by such artists as Matisse, Monet, and Kapoor, just to name a few. Level 4 houses temporary exhibits while level 5 zeroes in on such movements as Cubism, Futurism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Constructivism, and Conceptual Art. Artists displayed here might include Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Roy Lichtenstein. Outside, you can hop aboard the Tate Boat and make the twenty minute trip to Tate Modern's sister museum, Tate Britain, which has the world's largest collection of British art. The Switch House Herzog & de Meuron Switch House In 2016 Tate Modern significantly expanded its exhibition area with the addition of two large oil tanks and a new, very modern-looking glass pyramid extension (the so-called Switch House) which houses photography, video, and community exhibits.

The architects for the extension, which was added to the south side of the existing building, are Herzog and de Meuron. Duration: 3 hours 30 minutes Book this tour Katharine K Featured Having previously been to MOMA in New York, my expectations were high. The selection of art at the Tate is vast, housing works from the likes of Claude Monet to Marcel Duchamp. It provides stables such as Picasso, Mondrian and Warhol, however, it offers only a single or small amount of works from each. The vastness of the Tate Modern is impressive, and allows works of art to be presented sparingly. This avoids crowding and allows whole rooms and specific lighting for individual artworks or bodies of work such as Mark Rothko's 'The Seagram Murals', Cildo Meireles' electronic 'Babel' and progressive 'Embryology' by Magdalena Abakanowicz. Yes, some of the artwork my just look like a urinal or a sown up potato, but if you read the artists' denotation you will surely be impressed. Helpful?

Naomi Tastemaker Featured I was never much of a fan of the Tate on GCSE art trips down to London, finding that nothing really appealed to my tastes or even satisfied my basic understandings. But as I've grown up and studied art to a higher level, I don't mind the odd trip to browse around anymore, especially since the opening of the new building, which if nothing else offers panoramic views of London, a fabulous bar/cafe and a whole host of more interactive and lively exhibitions. Still not my favourite place, but it's not as bad as I remember. Just watch to avoid really busy peak times! Helpful? L-J tastemaker Featured Looking fabulous Tate, this amazing pubic space has undergone a massive extension in the form of the switch house, and is currently the most visited modern art museum in the entire world, lucky us. As a Londoner and avid art fan, I would highly recommend becoming a member of the Tate, your membership covers the Tate Modern as well as the Tate Britain. Your annual membership gives you free and unlimited access to all exhibitions in both galleries which is phenomenal value. However the best part for me is the private members rooms in both galleries.

At the Tate modern the members room is on the 5th floor of the Boiler house, with two private terraces one of the River towards St Paul's and one on the switch house extension side with views of the Shard. The members room has it's own restaurant serving fantastic lunches, wine, afternoon tea and coffee. You can pay the membership in 3 instalments by direct debit and you receive 3 months free. Win win - support the Tate. Helpful? GeorgeX Tastemaker Featured My favourite place in London! Tate Modern is all about contemporary art - any kind of art; paintings, photos, videos, sculptures, immersive stuff. Here you will find one of the bigest collections of contemporary art from popular as well as new artists from all over the world. After June's new opening of the Switch House, the collections are now split between the old and the new building. The buidings by themselves are quite impressive having the brutalist architecture trend.

Stunning views of St Paul Cathedral and Thames if you choose to sit for a coffee or food at the 6th floor of the old building (cheap prices here!) or stunning 360 views of London if you choose the 10th floor of the new building (no shop here - just balcony). If you choose the 10th floor, be aware; there are lifts going straight to the top, don't take the wrong lift going just to the middle of the building. A whole day is not enough to explore the place. Despite being quite open spaces and not over-stuffed with art objects all over the place, still there are a lot to explore either in the permanent or the temporary collections or even the really well equiped with modern art's books & items 2 x ground floor shops. Helpful? Mei M Tastemaker Featured Tate Modern is one of my favourite places in London. I've been there a lot of times, I know some of its exhibitions by heart, but I never get bored. I'm very interested in modern & contemporary art, even the very controversial works, and the Tate Modern has so many things to see that I'm never disappointed. You will find very famous artists, and also less known ones.

The gallery features any kind of artwork - paintings, photos, videos, interactive sculptures. I think even if you're not into art, you can still have some fun time there! I've recently visited the new part and the building is very interesting, another big plus is that from there you can enjoy a wonderful view of London :) Helpful? Hong-Anh Tastemaker Featured The new wing of the Tate Modern, the Switch House, feels like a bold and iconic addition to the London riverside and it feels very in-tune with the Tate Modern's popularity as a public space in itself. Two weeks after opening, it already feels like a tourist destination and undoubtedly this is due to the impressive 360 degree view of London that you get from the 10th floor terrace of the Switch House. Access to the terrace is free but it certainly isn't easy. The Switch House has a bank of eight elevators but only four of these go to the 10th floor. It's nigh on impossible to get onto one of the 10th floor elevators at any floor past 0 - make sure you head to the basement to hitch a ride to the top. Helpful?

Catia S Featured Going to Tate Modern on a saturday has always seemed to me a terrible idea however I've decided to adventure myself and get over the fear. I was more interested in knowing and seeing the buzz about the new Tate Modern extension: the Switch House. The Switch House is both the perfect extension and the perfect compliment to the original building the Boiler House. The war and industrial feeling in the Switch House is overpowering and this does not change as you go up the building (no wonder the ground floor has been named the Tanks). The rawness of the live performances and the exhibitions in the building not only match this overpowering sense but also give a certain sensuality to the Switch House experience. These are particularly felt in the Tanks, where instruments just lay on the floor and where a group of five people move randomly across the room and in Louise Bourgeois ’s exhibition where sex, death, love and vulnerability are the main themes in a very intimist journey. I attempt to say let's forget the Boiler House for a while and explore the infinity possibilities in the Switch House. Helpful? Toni S Tastemaker Featured This past weekend saw the opening of the Tate Modern extension by Herzog & De Meuron (Architects).

The opening brought visitors by the crowds, having said that though, there was ample space for visitors to circle the installations. The aptly named exhibition 'Between Object & Architecture', a free display spread across 3 floors, housed some interesting and interactive installations - definitely worth a visit. The building itself is a maze of considered transitional spaces and exhibition spaces that provide a neutral backdrop to the art installations. Make sure to visit the viewing level on the 10th floor that boasts a 360 view of London. Helpful? Izzy K Tastemaker Featured Tate Modern has always been one of my favourite art destinations in London, so I’d been really looking forward to the new opening of the Switch House. The 10-floor building, designed by the architect Herzog & de Meuron, is truly impressive. The raw concrete bunker-like level 0 (called the ‘Tanks’) gives a false impression of a hard to navigate maze, but once you transition to the next level, it’s all clear, bright and organised. You will find the familiar themed rooms with some of the artworks you might have seen before in the old building.

The highlights for me are the Louise Bourgeois room, Rebecca Horn’s sexy bondage pieces and of course Kusama’s 'Passing Winter' - a glass cube with holes, fitted with infinity mirrors – which I reckon will be the most instagrammable piece in this collection. The 360 degree view over London from the balcony on level 10 is stunning, as expected, but here the positives end. Despite the size of the extension, the number of artworks on display is very disappointing. When you get to level 4, you learn the remaining 6 levels are occupied by cafes, restaurants, event spaces, etc. It feels like there are more places for consumption than the actual exhibition rooms. And don’t try to use the lifts, they are absolutely useless. We tried to get to level 10 from level 4, but despite trying with multiple lifts, all of the ones going from 0 up would not stop. The same happened on the way back. People were trying to get out on various floors but the lift would just go straight down to 0. Let’s hope that it’s just the beginning and the space will live up to its potential. For now, I’ll stick to the old good power station. Helpful?

Danilo Reis tastemaker Featured I've always regarded the Tate Modern as a big middle finger sticking out, both in terms of architecture and content. Yesterday I went to check the new extension and was very pleased to see how it blends in nicely with the original power station where the museum has been housed since 2000. The artwork on display was very varied and interesting, with art from South America, Africa and Asia which is very refreshing indeed. A lot of the art required the viewer's interaction but some of it was there only to be displayed, such as Marina Abramovic's Rhythm 0 table, which was originally part of a performance. This certainly alters the original impact and meaning of the artwork, a challenge that the institution has not been able to overcome yet. This also confirms Tate Modern's role a museum in the traditional sense, with the aim of educating and informing the viewer. My friend said that some of the art on display was unworthy of such an important museum but I enjoyed it all thoroughly! Helpful? Aude tastemaker Featured Art is subjective but I really find the Tate a bit disappointing. I may not understand Modern art, but I think the museum is not showing the best part of it.

It may look a bit small compared to the size of the building as well, but with the works nearly over, I will have to give it a try again. The good point in the Tate, because yes there is one, is its terrace! It offers an amazing view on St Paul Cathedral and on the Thames! You can do not fancy Modern Art, but at least go there for the view. Helpful? Olivier Featured After not having been for a while (which is a disgrace considering I only live a 10min walk from the museum) I ventured back across the Millennium Bridge to see if any of the permanent exhibitions had been updated and was I in for a treat! It started with the very interesting art project in the turbine hall by Abraham Cruzvillages. The artist pretty much created a suburban allotment on stilts. The biggest surprise however was to be found on the first floor which had been re-curated entirely. On one half it still had the Citizens and States with the likes of Picasso, but with a lot of new works from for example Mondriaan which I had never seen at Tate Modern before. The most interesting exhibition however was the "Making Traces" show in which Mark Rothko's works found a new home.

I have missed those pieces since the took them away from the public eye a while ago. Please do me a favour and go visit Tate Modern to discover the new first floor! You'll Love it! Helpful? Tom Bruce Tastemaker Featured A grand industrial building turned modern art exhibition palace, the Tate Modern has prime positioning on the Thames Southbank directly opposite St Paul's cathedral. It's free, it's wonderful, it's absolutely massive (and, with a staggeringly large sail boat-looking extension being added as I write, about to be even more so) and it has a couple of cheeky Warhols and Hockneys. Unfortunately, the paid entry seasonal exhibitions are a bit out of the recently graduated student's price range. The curators will also never beat the time when they had gigantic usable metal slides installed which ran from the rafters to the ground floor. Now that was art! The number of ridiculously good looking fashionistas per square foot of London positively sky rockets upon entering the Tate Modern. Every beard is groomed, every eyebrow plucked, every pair of jeans tight, every set of cheekbones chiseled, every tattoo a work of art.

As a friend noted at the time, we were "the ugliest people in the entire gallery". It's as though their genes were better. And you can't compete with DNA. You just can't. Why mention these people in a review, though? Well, because the real art is in the reaction of the viewer to the art. Just as it is more fascinating to watch an artist at work than to view the finished product, it is more enjoyable to examine how human strangers interact with the space and art around them. We are all art. One gallery piece, a rectangular mirror, makes this exact point. But I had formed this theory before we came to the mirror part, I swear it. Below is the only picture I took at the Tate this last Friday - I just found the separations satisfying. Ah, culture. Helpful? Kritt N Tastemaker Featured If you love contemporary art, then there's no better to place spend your day than the Tate Gallery. Since being converted from a power station, the Tate Modern houses some of the finest collection in contemporary and modern over seven floors and organizes special exhibition for gallery members and for those with ticket.

The cafe on the second floor is well worth a visit for it's stunning view across the Thames, the Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral and the the gallery shop is well worth a visit too, for a vast array or gift ideas from the wacky to the inspirational. It's easy to reach from London Bridge and like most London galleries, is free. Well worth a visit. Helpful? Ben C moderator Featured Visiting the other day, I was struck by how easy it was to move through the rooms and leave totally unchanged, uninspired or in any way enlightened about the stuff that makes life interesting. It's a shame because the space is fantastic, and there are some genuine highlights (in the permanent collection, the Cy Twombly and Giuseppe Penone sculptures, Meredith Frampton's stunning portrait of Marguerite Kelsey). NB I did't see the temporary exhibitions this time, so not counting them in this. The new wing they're building wont' solve this problem - the Tate needs either better art, or a better "story", to use the language of our time, not necessarily more art. Everyone else rightly picks up on the great venue itself - cafes, locations, stuff for kids: I completely agree with that.

If you're looking for something to do with friends or kids for a few hours, then its great. Just not for a fresh and challenging experience of art. Helpful? kim r Featured One of my favourite places in London- getting there is a treat, either across the Millennium bridge with its stunning views down the river and back to St Pauls, or along the Thames past The Globe or the great eateries. Once there at the Tate Modern, there is always at least one top class exhibition to see- currently Matisse or Richard Hamilton (I preferred the latter). The room are well curated with a mixture of styles and the guided talks are well worth the investment, Book shop is great and the café gives you the opportunity to sit in the fresh air and look across at the Thames & St Pauls Helpful? Malcolm Featured Tate's great, two simple words that sum up this place, My sister updates my membership each Christmas and it truly is the gift that keeps on giving. I always enter via the millennium bridge so I can see the new London (Shard) verses the old (St Pauls).

The latest suprise was the new room dedicated to the American great photographer William Eggleston and as my friend Susie says Billys work reminds her of one of her all time favourite quotes from Camille Pissaro “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where others see nothing”. Truly recommended. I'm devoted to the mans work and I'll say it again the Tate is great. Helpful? Tate Modern in London, England - Lonely Planet © Mapbox © OpenStreetMap contributors One of London's most amazing attractions, this outstanding modern- and contemporary-art gallery is housed in the creatively revamped Bankside Power Station south of the Millennium Bridge. A spellbinding synthesis of modern art and capacious industrial brick design, Tate Modern has been extraordinarily successful in bringing challenging work to the masses, both through its free permanent collection and fee-paying, big-name temporary exhibitions. A stunning new extension opened in 2016, increasing the available exhibition space by 60%. The 4.2 million bricks of the 200m-long Tate Modern is an imposing sight, designed by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, who scooped the prestigious Pritzker Prize for their transformation of the empty power station.

Leaving the building's central 99m-high chimney, adding a two-storey glass box onto the roof and employing the cavernous Turbine Hall as a dramatic entrance space were three huge achievements. Herzog and de Meuron also designed the new 11-storey Tate extension. As a supreme collection of modern art, the contents of the museum are, however, the main draw. At their disposal, the curators have paintings by Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock as well as pieces by Joseph Beuys, Damien Hirst, Claes Oldenburg and Auguste Rodin. Tate Modern's permanent collection is arranged by both theme and chronology on levels 2, 3 and 4. More than 60,000 works are on constant rotation, so if there's a particular work you would like to see, check the website to see if (and where) it's hanging. The location is also supreme, as the ever-popular balconies on level 3 with their magnificent views of St Paul's will attest.

The Millennium Bridge elegantly conveys views direct from the Tate Modern to St Paul's Cathedral in the City on the far bank of the river. Free guided highlights tours depart at 11am, noon, 2pm and 3pm daily. Audio guides (in five languages) are available for £4 – they contain information about 50 artworks across the gallery and offer suggested tours for adults or children. Note the late-night opening hours on Friday and Saturday. To visit the sister-museum Tate Britain, hop on the Tate Boat from Bankside Pier. Tate Modern, Herzog and De Meuron | London | United Kingdom | MIMOA Herzog and De Meuron boeboe The former Bankside power station consists of a huge turbine hall, a thirty-five m high and 152 m long entrance area with ramped access, as well as a display space for very large sculptural projects. Parallel to it the boiler house, where now the galleries are housed. Above the original roofline of the power station the then relatively little known Swiss architects added a two-storey glass penthouse; the lightbeam.

This houses a cafï¿½-restaurant with stunning views of the river and the City, and the lower a membersroom with terraces on both sides of the building. The chimney was capped by a coloured light feature designed by the artist Michael Craig-Martin, known as the Swiss Light. The redevelopment of the redundant Bankside Power Station is a key to the regeneration of the area. Tate Modern is the national gallery of international modern art. Located in London, it is one of the family of 4 Tate galleries which display selections from the Tate Collection. (2) New Tate Modern Opening | Culture Whisper 17 Jun 2016 – 31 Jan 2030, Sunday – Thursday, 10.00–18.00 Friday – Saturday, 10.00–22.00 Share: Wildly triumphant: the new Tate Modern is an architectural marvel with an anarchic heart Thrilling, bewildering, a little exhausting: the new Tate Modern is a utopian cathedral of culture, that sticks two fingers up at history’s blinkered view of Modernism.

The transformation is the result of the largest cultural fundraising campaign in UK history, costing just shy of £300 million. The biggest change, physically, is a 10 (10!) storey extension, the ‘Switch House’, added on to the existing building, which we now call ‘the Boiler House’. There’s a bridge between the two on the first and fourth floor. Interior: Switch House Architecture: The Old and the New The site is accustomed to change: in 1994, it was a derelict power station. When Tate Modern opened its six years later, it was hailed as one of London's most impressive buildings. The architects retained much of the spirit of Giles Gilbert Scott’s original 1947 building, whilst creating an airy, modern space. This new extension, by the same architects, continues this happy marriage of old and new. Its exterior is brutal, in every sense: a twisted, upside-down pyramid, in dark brick, that sing of the building’s previous life. It’s clever, it’s seamless and - thank god - it isn’t made of glass. The inside is just as striking.

Artfully unfinished, it’s a paean to industrial interior design: concrete surface, exposed pipes, metallic details, warehouse-high ceilings. Hooray for diversity! A very global new collection The biggest change, though, is to the Tate’s permanent collection, which is spread over both the Switch and Boiler Houses. 120 years of art's history have been rewritten: tipped out, jiggled round and carefully, wackily, placed back together. A Live Macaw! - part of Tropicalia by Hélio Oiticica When the Tate Modern opened, its collection was made up of art from north west Europe and America. Mostly paintings, mainly by white men. Photography was seldom seen, performance art was practically non-existent. Over the last ten years, the Tate have been wildly acquiring art, from around the world. The new collection is made up of 300 artists, from over 50 countries - Chile, Russia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Thailand.

“The story of art has changed” as Tate Modern’s director Frances Morris puts it - “truly great art was then and is now made all over the world.” Over half the solo displays are by women, including the work of radical feminist art collective the Guerrilla Girls, who will make an exciting appearance at East London's Whitechapel Gallery later this year . Hanging in the Boiler House, their provocative poster 'Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?' sits on the opposite side from - and in opposition to - to Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych. We still have Matisse, Picasso, Rothko, Ai Weiwei in prominent positions, but scattered in between artists you’ll never have heard of. Forget Paris and New York: here’s art from Zagreb, from Tokyo from Colombo. This cultural jumble will irk traditionalists. But we loved the mix ’n’ match attitude of the beautiful, airy displays. Surprising partnerships jump out at you, visual juxtapositions, half-rhymes. Marina Abramovic 72 objects - photo by Eleonore Dresch Performance art in all its forms is presented throughout the new displays.

We have pioneers such as Marina Abramovic (above), film, light and video works in the subterranean Tanks. Look out for police officers on horseback in the Turbine Hall, courtesy of Tania Bruguera - not to mention the live Macaws; part of 'Tropicalia' by Hélio Oiticica. A lot of the rooms are confusing, a lot of the art is abstruse. The display labels are, on occasion, supremely unhelpful. But isn’t the the point of Modern Art? To push and pull, to demand, to make you work. A wild triumph.

Question: What was the original use of the building which now houses the Tate Modern art museum in London?
Answer: Power station