LONDON ATTRACTIONS

Attractions in London

Attractions in London

Introduction

Despite previous year's terrorist attacks, a record number of trips have been taken in the UK by domestic and international tourists, according to the survey of visits to visitor attractions 2005, published recently by Visit Britain. Visits to London attractions have decreased over the past year by five percent, but the majority of England's regions have seen an increase in attraction visits with Yorkshire/The Humber seeing an eight percent rise and the East up five percent (Howard, 2011, 56).

Discussion

Tate Modern

On the banks of the Thames, the Tate Modern is Britain's national museum of international modern art and boasts an array of works by Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Rothko, Dali, Pollock and Warhol, as well as many promising artists. With the exception, of special exhibitions, admission to Tate Modern is free (Jack & Phipps, 2005, 116). The Tate Modern is set to open in May in a converted power station on the south bank of the Thames, giving London's Tate Gallery a new showcase for its very large collection of modern art. It is huge.

It is the largest modern art museum in the world. Half of it is a vast, echoing space. High up behind the tiers and clerestories is more than 50 galleries, half-galleries, double- height galleries, smaller rooms and ante-chambers comprising six suites of showing spaces on three levels. The galleries are practical, flexible and often extremely beautiful. The birth of Tate Modern meant that the strange old compound Tate was cleanly separated (Jack & Phipps, 2005, 116). The regional, historical, mundane stuff was left in the old home. The international, recent, happening stuff went to the new. Even the styles of curating are in high contrast. Both galleries do non- chronological, and thematic hangs. Tate Modern's is immensely chic; Tate Britain's an exuberant mess. Exactly five months ago, the Tate Gallery's former Millbank site turned into Tate Britain, with a little bit of ceremony.

Six weeks later, Tate Modern opened at Bankside with a campaign of publicity unrivalled in the history of British art (Jack & Phipps, 2005, 117). Now one should not overstate the scope of such campaigns. For instance, I was impressed to find recently that my father, who lives in London and reads newspapers etc, had never heard of Tate Modern, had no idea what I was talking about. The opening of Tate Modern is a watershed in the cultural life of this country. It signals the importance of the art of our times, and its centrality in our culture.

Unlike most of the major cities and capitals of the western world, London has never had a museum dedicated to the permanent display of international modern art, and there has never been a museum anywhere on quite this scale. Tate Modern is not just an extension of an existing museum; it is as important a venture as the Museum of Modern Art in New York or the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Tate Modern is bigger than ...