Tate Britain is reconnecting with its past with a stunning-yet-sympathetic overhaul, which openned to the public Tuesday. For this £45m project, architects Caruso St John have radically re-thought the circulation in and around the building’s grand entrance on Millbank, adding a spectacular black and white staircase between the lobby and the basement spaces. These now host a new archive gallery, café and restaurant, as well as state-of-the art education facilities. Upstairs the rotunda’s domed atrium, which had been closed to the public since the 1920s, has been re-opened and made into a members’ room. Inspired by Tate’s original features, these additions and transformations are spliced so seamlessly into Sidney RJ Smith’s 1892 design that visitors are likely to soon forget Tate Britain was ever any different.
The inauguration follows the launch of Tate Britain’s ten new galleries last May, completing a project seven years in the making. Artists have also been put to work: Nicole Wermers designed a double-headed spoon for the café (Manners, 2013), Alan Johnston, a subtle pencil drawing for the vaults (Tactile Geometry, 2013) and Richard Wright, a new window for the Millbank Foyer.
Before taking a tour, ARTINFO UK’s Coline Milliard talked to director Penelope Curtis, architect Peter St John, and artist Paul Noble, who curated an exhibition inspired by Tate’s location on a site that was once a swamp, and later, a prison.
