Today I visited the Tate Britain, and unless I am totally forgetting something, that about rounds out my visits to the major art museums in London.
Having been to so many museums in the past few months (this is number THIRTEEN, guys!), I'm a lot more impatient about things that I don't find to be user-friendly, and a lot more appreciative of museums that are.No fuss, no muss, the Tate Britain was simply a museum done really well. The galleries were spacious, well lit with plenty of natural light, and the art was neither over crowded nor too sparsely hung.
Beyond the special exhibitions or rotating galleries, there was a really nice display layout of a timeline of British art arranged in chronological order, with the galleries flowing seamlessly from one to the next, all clearly marked on the floor so you could follow along.
I like when art is arranged by time period rather than by style- it is interesting to see how the same events (for example, WWI or the invention of photography) start affecting art in different ways. When art is arranged solely by style, it is easy to forget the context in which it was made and that there were other styles of art being made at the same time.
While the Tate Britain may have had a smaller collection on display than some of the other big name British museums I've been too, I spent longer going through it than most of the others because I enjoyed the art, the way it was displayed, and the lack of overwhelming crowds so much.
Highs
-FREE museum with a good scope of British art spanning the 1500s to present day, as well as a huge collection of JMW Turner paintings
-Well organized collection is easy to navigate and gives an excellent timeline if the history of British art
-I know this sounds silly, but they have my favorite museum map that I have encountered- small enough to pocket (WHY don't more places do this??), visually appealing, and user friendly. It was a little thing that made a big impact on my enjoyment
-Not overly crowded, and plenty of padded seating if your feet needed a break
-Security guards were not overly jumpy- I didn't get yelled at if I wanted to take a closer look at the brushstrokes on a painting
Lows
-Bathrooms were a bit out of the way, but other than that I have no complaints. Well done, Tate Britain!
Verdict
This is an easy recommend for me- as I said before, it was just a really well put together museum. When something is done well it looks easy and that's kind of how I feel about this review- I don't have much else to say because as far as museums go, it ticked all my boxes. If you like British art, check it out.












