Tate Britain

You’d think that Tate Britain might have suffered since its lavish, sexy sibling, Tate Modern, took half its collection and all of the limelight upriver when it opened in 2000, but on the contrary, things have worked out perfectly for both galleries. The venerable Tate Britain, built in 1897, stretched out splendidly to fill the increased space with its definitive collection of British art from the 16th to the late 20th centuries, while the Modern sister devoted its space to, well, modern art. The permanent galleries are broadly chronological in order, and you can expect to see some of the most important works by artists such as Constable and Gainsborough – who have entire galleries devoted to them – and Hogarth, Reynolds, Stubbs, Blake and Henry Moore, among others. Adjoining the main building is the Clore Gallery, which houses the superb JMW Turner, including the two recovered classics Shade and Darkness and Light and Colour, which were nicked in 1994 and found nine years later. Just as you are thinking that all the moderns and contemporaries were up at the Modern, Tate Britain’s got work by Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin, as well as Anthony Gormley and bad-girl Tracey Emin. Tate Britain also hosts the prestigious and often controversial Turner Prize for contemporary art from October to early December every year. There are several free one-hour thematic tours each day, mostly on the hour (last tour at 3pm), along with free 15-minute talks on paintings, painters and styles at 1.15pm Tuesday to Thursday in the Rotunda. Audio-guide tours for the collection are available. A good time to visit the gallery is Late at Tate night, on the first Friday of every month, when the gallery stays open until 10pm. The best way to see both Tates and have a fabulous art day is to catch the boat that connects the two galleries.