Tate Modern

Tate Modern on London's South Bank is the world's most visited modern and contemporary art museum, drawing over five million visitors annually to its converted Bankside Power Station, which originally supplied electricity to central London and closed in 1981. The building's transformation by architects Herzog and de Meuron retained the iconic chimney and turbine hall — now an awe-inspiring void 35 metres high and 160 metres long — which serves as the museum's main entrance and hosts large-scale commissioned artworks that change every few years. The permanent collection, displayed across multiple floors of the original building and the adjacent ten-storey Switch House extension (opened in 2016), spans works from 1900 to the present day and includes major holdings by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol. The Rothko Room contains a group of deep-hued canvases originally intended for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, which Rothko withdrew; they are among the most emotionally intense rooms in any British gallery. The Blavatnik Building (Switch House) provides additional gallery floors in a triangular brick tower and includes the Level 10 viewing terrace, which offers a free panoramic view over the Thames, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the City of London. The Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge crossing the Thames immediately outside the museum's north entrance, connects directly to the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral — one of London's great urban walks. Permanent collection admission is free; special exhibitions carry a separate charge typically in the range of £20-25. Friday and Saturday opening extends to 22:00, attracting evening visitors and occasional late events.