Tate Modern

The Turbine Hall

Tate Modern is housed in the former Bankside Power Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station, and built in two stages between 1947 and 1963. It is directly across the river from St Paul's Cathedral. The power station closed in 1981.[4]

Prior to redevelopment, the power station was a 200 m (660 ft) long, steel framed, brick clad building with a substantial central chimney standing 99 m (325 ft). The structure was roughly divided into three main areas each running east–west – the huge main Turbine Hall in the centre, with the boiler house to the north and the switch house to the south.[4]

For many years after closure Bankside Power station was at risk of being demolished by developers. Many people campaigned for the building to be saved and put forward suggestions for possible new uses. An application to list the building was refused. In April 1994 the Tate Gallery announced that Bankside would be the home for the new Tate Modern. In July of the same year, an international competition was launched to select an architect for the new gallery. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Herzog & de Meuron were announced as the winning architects in January 1995. The £134 million conversion to the Tate Modern started in June 1995 and completed in January 2000.[5]

The most obvious external change was the two-story glass extension on one half of the roof. Much of the original internal structure remained, including the cavernous main turbine hall, which retained the overhead travelling crane. An electrical substation, taking up the Switch House in the southern third of the building, remained on-site and owned by the French power company EDF Energy while Tate took over the northern Boiler House for Tate Modern's main exhibition spaces.[5]

Panoramic view from Tate Modern balcony

The history of the site as well as information about the conversion was the basis for a 2008 documentary Architects Herzog and de Meuron: Alchemy of Building & Tate Modern. This challenging conversion work was carried by Carillion.[5]

Tate Modern was opened by the Queen on 11 May 2000.[6]

Tate Modern received 5.25 million visitors in its first year. The previous year the three existing Tate galleries had received 2.5 million visitors combined.[7]

Tate Modern had attracted more visitors than originally expected and plans to expand it had been in preparation since 2004. These plans focused on the south west of the building with the intention of providing 5,000 m² of new display space, almost doubling the amount of display space.[8][9]

The southern third of the building was retained by the French State owned power company EDF Energy as an electrical substation. In 2006, the company released the western half of this holding[10] and plans were made to replace the structure with a tower extension to the museum, initially planned to be completed in 2015. The tower was to be built over the old oil storage tanks, which would be converted to a performance art space. Structural, geotechnical, civil, and façade engineering and environmental consultancy was undertaken by Ramboll between 2008 and 2016.[11]

This project was initially costed at £215 million.[12] Of the money raised, £50 million came from the UK government; £7 million from the London Development Agency; £6 million from philanthropist John Studzinski; and donations from, among others, the Sultanate of Oman and Elisabeth Murdoch.[13]

In June 2013, international shipping and property magnate Eyal Ofer pledged £10m to the extension project, making it to 85% of the required funds. Eyal Ofer, chairman of London-based Zodiac Maritime Agencies, said the donation made through his family foundation would enable "an iconic institution to enhance the experience and accessibility of contemporary art".[14] The Tate director, Nicholas Serota, praised the donation saying it would help to make Tate Modern a "truly twenty-first-century museum".[15]

The first phase of the expansion involved the conversion of three large, circular, underground oil tanks originally used by the power station into accessible display spaces and facilities areas. These opened on 18 July 2012 and closed on 28 October 2012[7] as work on the tower building continued directly above. They reopened following the completion of the Switch House extension in June 2016.[16]

Two of the Tanks are used to show live performance art and installations while the third provides utility space.[17] Tate describes them as "the world's first museum galleries permanently dedicated to live art".[18]

Exterior of the Switch House

A ten-storey tower, 65 metres high from ground level, was built above the oil tanks.[19]

The original western half of the Switch House was demolished to make room for the tower and then rebuilt around it with large gallery spaces and access routes between the main building and the new tower on level 1 (ground level) and level 4. The new galleries on level 4 have natural top lighting. A bridge built across the turbine hall on level 4 provides an upper access route.[8]

The new building opened to the public on 17 June 2016.[20]

The design, again by Herzog & de Meuron, has been controversial. It was originally designed with a glass stepped pyramid, but this was amended to incorporate a sloping façade in brick latticework (to match the original power-station building)[21] despite planning consent to the original design having been previously granted by the supervising authority.[22]

The extension provides 22,492 square metres of additional gross internal area for display and exhibition spaces, performance spaces, education facilities, offices, catering and retail facilities as well as a car parking and a new external public space.[23]

In May 2017, the Switch House was formally renamed the Blavatnik Building, after Anglo-Ukrainian billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik, who contributed a "substantial" amount of the £260m cost of the extension. Sir Nicholas Serota commented "Len Blavatnik's enthusiastic support ensured the successful realisation of the project and I am delighted that the new building now bears his name".[24]

A gallery at Tate Modern.

The main collection displays consist of 8 areas with a named theme or subject. Within each area there are some rooms that change periodically showing different works in keeping with the overall theme or subject. The themes are changed less frequently. There is no admission charge for these areas.[27]

As of June 2016 the themed areas were:[17]

• Start Display: A three-room display of works by major artists to introduce the basic ideas of modern art.
• Artist and Society
• In The Studio
• Materials and Objects
• Media Networks
• Between Object and Architecture
• Performer and Participant
• Living Cities

There is also an area dedicated to displaying works from the Artist Rooms collection.

Chimney of Tate Modern. The Swiss Light at its top was designed by Michael Craig-Martin and the architects Herzog & de Meuron and was sponsored by the Swiss government. It was dismantled in May 2008.

Since the Tate Modern first opened in 2000, the collections have not been displayed in chronological order but have been arranged thematically into broad groups. Prior to the opening of the Switch House there were four of these groupings at a time, each allocated a wing on levels 3 and 5 (now levels 2 and 4).

The initial hanging from 2000 to 2006:[28][29]

• History/Memory/Society
• Nude/Action/Body
• Landscape/Matter/Environment
• Still Life/Object/Real Life

The first rehang at Tate Modern opened in May 2006.[30][31] It eschewed the thematic groupings in favour of focusing on pivotal moments of twentieth-century art. It also introduced spaces for shorter exhibitions in between the wings. The layout was:

• Material Gestures[32]
• Poetry and Dream[33]
• Energy and Process[34]
• States of Flux[35]

In 2012, there was a partial third rehang.[36] The arrangement was:

• Poetry and Dream[37]
• Structure and Clarity[38]
• Transformed Visions[39]
• Energy and Process
• Setting the Scene – A smaller section, located between wings, covering installations with theatrical or fictional themes.[40]

Ólafur Elíasson, The Weather Project (2004)

Rachel Whiteread, EMBANKMENT (2005)

The Turbine hall, which once housed the electricity generators of the old power station, is five storeys tall with 3,400 square metres of floorspace.[41] It is used to display large specially-commissioned works by contemporary artists, between October and March each year.

From 2000 until 2012, the series was named after its corporate sponsor, Unilever. In this time the company provided £4.4m sponsorship in total including a renewal deal of £2.2m for a period of five years agreed in 2008.[42] This series was planned to last the gallery's first five years, but the popularity of the series led to its extension until 2012.[43]

The artists who have exhibited commissioned work in the Turbine Hall as part of the Unilever series are:

In 2013, Tate Modern signed a sponsorship deal worth around £5 million with Hyundai to cover a ten-year program of commissions, then considered the largest amount of money ever provided to an individual gallery or museum in the United Kingdom.[45] The first commission for the Hyundai series is Mexican artist, Abraham Cruzvillegas.[46]

The artists who have exhibited commissioned work in the Turbine Hall as part of the Hyundai series thus far are:

When there is no series running, the Turbine Hall is used for occasional events and exhibitions. In 2011 it was used to display Damien Hirst's For The Love of God.[52] A sell-out show by Kraftwerk in February 2013 crashed the ticket hotline and website, causing a backlash from the band's fans. In 2018 the Turbine Hall was used for two performances of Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum and Stockhausen's Gruppen.[53]

Two wings of the Boiler House are used to stage the major temporary exhibitions for which an entry fee is charged. These exhibitions normally run for three or four months. When they were located on a single floor, the two exhibition areas could be combined to host a single exhibition. This was done for the Gilbert and George retrospective due to the size and number of the works.[54]

A 2014 show of Henri Matisse provided Tate Modern with London's best-attended charging exhibition, and with a record 562,622 visitors overall, helped by a nearly five-month-long run.[55] In 2018, Joan Jonas had a retrospective exhibition.[56]

A Year in Art: Australia 1992, featuring contemporary Indigenous Australian art of 1992, which opened in June 2021, was extended until September 2022 owing to its popularity.[57]

The Tanks, located on level 0, are three large underground oil tanks, connecting spaces and side rooms originally used by the power station and refurbished for use by the gallery. One tank is used to display installation and video art specially commissioned for the space while smaller areas are used to show installation and video art from the collection. The Tanks have also been used as a venue for live music.[58]

The Project Space (formerly known as the Level 2 Gallery) was a smaller gallery located on the north side of the Boiler House on level 1 which housed exhibitions of contemporary art in collaboration with other international art organisations. Its exhibitions typically ran for 2–3 months and then travelled to the collaborating institution for display there. The space was only accessible by leaving the building and re-entering using a dedicated entrance. It is no longer used as gallery space.

Works are also sometimes shown in the restaurants and members' rooms. Other locations that have been used in the past include the mezzanine on Level 1 and the north facing exterior of the Boiler House building.[59]

Service	Station/Stop	Lines/Routes served	Distance from Tate Modern
London Buses	Southwark Street / Blackfriars Road	RV1	0.2-mile walk[60]
	Blackfriars Bridge	381, N343, N381	0.2-mile walk[61]
	Blackfriars Bridge / South Side	45, 63, 100, N63, N89	0.2-mile walk[62]
	Southwark Bridge / Bankside Pier	344	0.4-mile walk[63]
London Underground	Southwark		0.4-mile walk[64]
National Rail	Blackfriars	Thameslink, Southeastern	0.5-mile walk[65]
	London Bridge	Thameslink, Southern, Southeastern	0.7-mile walk[66]
London River Services	Bankside Pier	Commuter Service Tate to Tate Westminster to St Katharine's Circular

• At the exit of Southwark tube station, orange lamposts direct visitors to Tate Modern.