Tate Modern, London

Tate Modern transformed a decommissioned power station into one of the world's most visited art museums when it opened in May 2000. The Bankside Power Station, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and built between 1947 and 1963, generated electricity for central London until 1981. Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron won the competition to convert the industrial cathedral into gallery space, keeping the massive Turbine Hall as a dramatic entrance and commission space. The Queen opened the museum on May 11, 2000, and 5.25 million visitors came in the first year alone.

The collection focuses on international modern and contemporary art from 1900 onward. William Blake's visionary prints, including Newton and Nebuchadnezzar, represent the collection's British roots. Works by John Constable and the Pre-Raphaelites share space with Picasso, Dali, and Warhol. The Switch House extension opened in 2016, adding ten floors of new gallery space.

Piet Mondrian's grid painting Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red anchors the abstract galleries, while David Hockney's A Bigger Splash brings a lighter, sun-bleached mood to the postwar rooms. Rather than chronological arrangement, Tate Modern groups art thematically, so a Rothko can hang near a much older work exploring the same idea. Entry to the permanent collection is free, making this one of London's most accessible cultural institutions.