Serpentine Gallery

What looks like an unprepossessing 1930s-style tearoom in the midst of the leafy Kensington Gardens is one of London’s most important contemporary art galleries. Artists including Damien Hirst, Andreas Gursky, Louise Bourgeois, Gabriel Orozco, Tomoko Takahashi and Jeff Koons have all exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery, and the gallery’s huge windows beam natural light onto the pieces, making the space perfect for sculpture and interactive displays. Every year a leading architect (who has never built in the UK) is commissioned to build a new ‘Summer Pavilion’ nearby, which is open from May to October. Past architects have included Alvaro Siza, Oscar Niemeyer, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid and SANAA partners Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, who did the stunning New Museum in New York’s Bowery district. Reading, talks and open-air cinema screenings take place here as well.