A visit to the Tate Modern

The walk to the Tate Modern from the Tube station is neat. There are orange street lights that guide you there, and there are all sorts of modern buildings going up in the neighborhood around the museum. This is a new office building.


It looks like this building was inspired by a barn - with the rounded roof and the silo-like towers. I think it is a new residential unit. It's right in front of the entrance to the Tate Modern.


I think this clever barricade is referring to roadwork, but it certainly fits the building in the background as well. This neighborhood is definitely one in transition, and with many of the new buildings appearing to be only a few years old, it seems that the Tate Modern is the force behind the change.


Here is the main entrance to the Tate Modern. Established in 2000, this is latest of addition to the Tate family of art museums. The original is the Tate Britain, which contains more traditional artwork. That one was founded in 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art. The building housing the Tate Modern was built between 1947 and 1963 as the Bankside Power Station, which closed in 1981.


After walking through the front doors, you walk down a long sloping ramp that leads directly into the temporary exhibition hall. Like many public museums in London (and for the most part all of Britain), general admission is free with a recommended donation of three pounds. There are a few exhibits that do require a fee to enter, but usually only one or two at a time.


Apparently putting the "please do not touch" sign on the floor isn't too effective.


This is looking down at the major temporary exhibition space at the end of the main entrance ramp. It is called Turbine Hall because it used to house the electricity generators of the old power plant. It is five stories tall and is used to display specially commissioned large modern works of art. There art in this hall has changed each year in a series sponsored by Unilever. The series was only supposed to last for the first 5 years, but it has been so successful that it has been extended through at least 2012.


This picture is looking up and was taken from the same place that I was standing for the picture above. You can see the remnants from the old power station that were left in place as a tribute to the building's past. I personally found this more interesting that half of the "art" in the museum, but that's just me.


The museum has a very open feel to it, and it very easy to navigate and move from exhibit to exhibit. The quality design aspect of how the building was laid out was the topic of a recent New York Times article. The article was comparing the Tate Modern's building to either the MET or the MOMA in New York (I forget which - it was the one that recently had a major addition that cost a lot of money). The Time's critic was complementing the Tate Modern for spending a lot less money and achieving what he thought was a much better result. The Tate Modern's collections are still on the weak side, however, because of its relative youth - but it is quickly establishing a name for itself.


Looking back at the full Tate Modern building from the Millenium Bridge that carries pedestrians across the Thames to St. Paul's Cathedral. The historic building was at risk of being demolished until the Tate announced in 1994 that the building would become the home of its newly conceived "Tate Modern." The conversion process cost 134 million pounds, and construction started in 1995. It opened to the public in 2000.