Arrive by the river and let the Turbine Hall swallow you
You come at Tate Modern the way the building wants to be approached: along the Thames, with St Paul's Cathedral directly across the water, and the Millennium Bridge carrying you from the north bank to the gallery's door. What you see is the former Bankside Power Station, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and built in two stages between 1947 and 1963 — a long, steel-framed, brick-clad structure with a central chimney. You enter through the Turbine Hall, the six-storey space that runs the whole length of the building between the Boiler House and the Switch House, still holding the overhead travelling crane from its power-station days. There is a gentle ramp down from the entrance; from here both sides of the gallery open out on level 0. The eastern end of the hall is tall enough to hold exceptionally large artworks, and this is where you'll find them.
Walk the levels and follow the art from 1900 to now
Tate Modern holds the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art — work created from or after 1900 — and access to the collection displays, which take up the majority of the gallery, is free. You can shape a whole day around moving between the two halves of the building:
- The Boiler House shows art from 1900 to the present day, spread across levels 2, 3 and 4, each split into a large east and west wing with at least eleven rooms apiece.
- The Switch House shows art from 1960 to the present day, with gallery space on levels 0, 2, 3 and 4 of its eleven floors.
- Level 4 galleries in the extension are lit from above by natural top lighting, and a bridge across the Turbine Hall on the same level gives you an upper route between the two buildings.
- In the collection you'll encounter paintings, sculptures and large-scale installations by international artists including Pablo Picasso, Yayoi Kusama and Henri Matisse.
- Works in the collection displays are arranged into themed areas, with individual rooms changing periodically while the themes themselves shift less often.
Major temporary exhibitions require a purchased ticket, and booking is recommended for those.
Go underground to the Tanks, then climb the brick tower
Two of the most distinctive spaces at Tate Modern are ones the power station left behind. The Tanks are three large, circular, underground oil tanks converted into display spaces — two for live performance art and installations, the third given over to utility space. Tate describes them as the first museum galleries permanently dedicated to live art. Above them rises the ten-storey tower of the extension, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, who also converted the power station itself. Its sloping façade is brick latticework, matching the original building: a perforated brick screen that filters light in by day and glows at night, with horizontal cuts in the brickwork framing views, daylight and natural ventilation. The old and new brickwork read as a single building. The extension opened to the public on 17 June 2016 and was renamed the Blavatnik Building in May 2017.
Plan around the hours, and know how you'll get there
The gallery opens Sunday to Thursday 10:00–18:00 and Friday to Saturday 10:00–21:00, with last entry thirty minutes before closing. Bags are checked on arrival, so allow extra time for security, and anything larger than cabin-bag size (55cm x 40cm x 20cm) isn't permitted. If you're carrying luggage, there's a left-luggage facility at London Bridge station; lockers can be rented on level 0 of the Blavatnik Building. You can come in through the Turbine Hall ramp or via the Blavatnik Building.
On foot, Blackfriars is your closest station — about 300 m from its south exit — with Southwark on the Jubilee Line roughly 600 m away, and Cannon Street, London Bridge and St Paul's all within about a kilometre. Buses 40, 63 and 100 stop on Blackfriars Bridge Road; 381 on Southwark Street; 344 on Southwark Bridge Road. There's no parking at the gallery or in the surrounding streets, so public transport is the sensible choice; if you're being dropped off, use Holland Street outside the main entrance or Southwark Street a short walk away. Cycle-hire docks sit at New Globe Walk and Sumner Street.
Make an afternoon of Bankside and Southwark
The conversion dug out the Turbine Hall and, in Herzog & de Meuron's account, set off rapid development in what had been a neglected district of Southwark. The extension reinforced that: it added a new entrance to the south and a direct north–south passage running from the Thames through the existing building and the Turbine Hall out to a new city plaza on Sumner Street, connecting Southwark with the river and adding public open space. So when you leave, you leave into the neighbourhood rather than away from it. Pair the gallery with the walk across the Millennium Bridge, whose views back toward St Paul's Cathedral are among the best on this stretch of the river, and let the day run from the collection floors down through the Tanks and out into the streets of Bankside.
Check the current exhibition programme and book any ticketed shows before you travel, then give the free collection displays the time they deserve — a morning in the Boiler House, an afternoon in the Blavatnik Building, and the river in between.