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Thirty places to see first, in order, for somebody who has never been to London. Each says what it is, whether it is free, whether you must book, and whether the queue is worth it.
Modern art in a power station facing St Paul's across the river, with a turbine hall the full height of the building. Free; the big exhibitions are ticketed.
Also in Museums and Art and Architecture.
Tate Modern holds the nation's international modern and contemporary art, everything from 1900 onwards, and it lives in Bankside Power Station, built by Giles Gilbert Scott between 1947 and 1963 directly across the river from St Paul's and shut down in 1981. Refused protection and marked for demolition, it was saved when the Tate chose it in 1994; Herzog & de Meuron's £134 million conversion kept the brick shell, the 99-metre chimney and the Turbine Hall, and added the two-storey glass box on the roof. It opened on 11 May 2000 and drew 5.25 million people in its first year, twice what all three existing Tates had managed together.
The Turbine Hall is the heart of it: a single space the full length and six-storey height of the building, where one artist a year is commissioned to fill it. The collection displays on the floors either side are free and hung by theme rather than date. In 2016 the Switch House, the southern third of the power station, became a ten-storey brick tower, now the Blavatnik Building, standing over the old oil tanks, which are used for performance and film; Level 10 at the top of it is a free viewing gallery over the river. In 2025 four and a half million people came, more than to any other art gallery in Britain.
Step-free access
| Monday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 – 21:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 – 21:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
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Photo by Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.