Tate Modern

The UK Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Tate Modern’s own viewing platform was a legal nuisance to its neighbors, and the gallery had to permanently restrict access to protect the privacy of residents living in the glass-walled flats next door. That is not a footnote, it is one of the odder outcomes of contemporary architecture colliding with contemporary art, and it changed what you can actually do at the top of the building. The Level 10 viewing platform, once open on all four sides, now offers views on three sides only, with signage discouraging photography toward the residential tower, and it doubles as an espresso bar rather than the wraparound panorama it used to be. Go anyway. Even restricted, it is one of the few free high-level views over the City and St Paul’s that does not require a booking.

Permanent entry to Tate Modern costs nothing, which still surprises first-time visitors used to paying for major museums elsewhere in Europe. Only the ticketed temporary exhibitions charge admission, and those are worth planning around rather than stumbling into. The gallery opens daily from 10am to 6pm, and stays open until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays, which is the better time to visit if you want to see the Turbine Hall without a crowd of school groups moving through it.

Speaking of the Turbine Hall, the Unilever Series that used to anchor it ended in 2012. It has since been replaced by the Hyundai Commission, a new large-scale installation each year funded through a partnership that Hyundai has now extended to 2036. The 2026 edition is by sound artist Tarek Atoui, opening in October, following Máret Ánne Sara’s commission which runs through early April. If you are visiting mid-year, check what is currently installed before you go, since the space is sometimes between commissions and comparatively bare.

Getting there on foot is part of the experience if you time it right. Cross the Millennium Bridge from St Paul’s on the north bank and Tate Modern is directly ahead of you on Bankside, a walk of maybe five minutes across the river with the dome of St Paul’s behind you and the old Bankside Power Station chimney in front. The nearest tube stations are Blackfriars and Southwark, both five to ten minutes on foot, and London Bridge if you want to route through Borough Market first, which adds fifteen to twenty minutes of walking but puts you through one of London’s best food markets on the way.

For food, Borough Market itself will outclass most formal restaurant options nearby if you go before early afternoon, when the produce stalls are still stocked and the lines for the well-known vendors have not built up yet. Inside the museum, the restaurant leans toward seasonal British cooking, solid but not the reason to visit. Frank’s Cafe, the rooftop bar that pops up seasonally on top of a Peckham car park, gets confused with Tate Modern in older write-ups but is actually a separate summer venue across the river, worth the detour if timing lines up.

For accommodation, staying south of the river in Bankside or Borough keeps you a short walk from both the gallery and the market, which matters more than proximity to central London landmarks if art and food are the priority. The Shard sits close enough for a room with a skyline view, and citizenM’s Bankside location keeps costs down without sacrificing the walk to the gallery.

Beyond the museum, Shakespeare’s Globe sits a few minutes along the riverbank and runs performances through the summer season in the open-air yard, worth checking for matinees if the weather holds. A short Thames boat trip from Bankside pier also gives you a different angle on the power station building that most ground-level photos miss entirely, since the scale of the old chimney only really reads from the water.

My honest take: skip the paid special exhibition unless the subject genuinely interests you, since the free permanent collection and the rotating Turbine Hall commission already deliver more per hour than most ticketed museum shows in London. Save the money for lunch at Borough Market instead.