The building is the first artwork
Bankside Power Station was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott — the same architect responsible for the red telephone box — and operated from 1952 to 1981. When the Tate acquired it for a new gallery of modern art, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron converted it with a precision that preserved the industrial scale while making it habitable. The chimney was kept. The turbine hall — 155 metres long, 35 metres high — became a gallery space unlike anything else in the world.
Entry to the permanent collection is free, which is remarkable given what's inside.
The Turbine Hall: plan around it
Since 2000, the Turbine Hall has hosted an annual commission — a single large-scale artwork that fills the entire space. Louise Bourgeois opened with a giant spider sculpture. Olafur Eliasson installed an artificial sun that visitors lay under for hours. Carsten Höller built a slide from the fifth floor. The works change each year, and they change what visiting the museum feels like.
Check the Tate website before you go to see what's currently installed. If the timing works, plan your visit around it.
Rothko: the room that asks you to stay
Mark Rothko created the Seagram Murals specifically for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York — a commission he later refused to complete when he understood the context. He gave nine of the paintings to the Tate instead. They hang in a dedicated room on Level 2, lit carefully, with benches.
Rothko wanted the paintings to overwhelm the viewer. He painted them large enough that standing close meant the colour filled your peripheral vision. He said he wanted to create the same effect as a chapel. The room in the Tate comes close. Spend twenty minutes there. More if you can.
Picasso, Matisse, and the permanent collection
The Tate Modern holds one of the most significant collections of 20th-century art in the world. Picasso's Weeping Woman is here. So are major Matisses, Dalís, Warhols, and a Giacometti room. The collection is organised thematically rather than chronologically — which is either interesting or frustrating, depending on your patience for curatorial statements.
The advantage is that you encounter unexpected pairings. A Monet next to an abstract expressionist reveals more than either would alone.
The Switch House
The Switch House extension opened in 2016 and connects to the original building via the Turbine Hall. It houses the contemporary and performance art collections, and the tenth-floor viewing platform has one of the best views in London — St Paul's directly north, the City behind it, the Thames below. It's free.
Practical notes
The permanent collection is free, but major temporary exhibitions charge admission and are worth booking ahead. The museum is open seven days a week (10am–6pm, until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays). The restaurant on Level 9 is good; the café on the ground floor is functional. Get there before 10:30am on weekdays if you want any kind of quiet in the Turbine Hall.