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London walks and Tate Modern

Monday, September 21st, 2009

When our London walks cross over the River Thames via the Millennium Bridge the view of all those on the tours is captivated, some might even say dominated, by a massive building on the south bank of the River Thames.

This building is Tate Modern but it was formerly Bankside Power Station which closed in 1981 when the price of oil (it was an oil powered power station) rose so steeply that keeping it open simply wasn’t economically viable.

It was a year after this closure that Richard Jones began offering his London walks to the public and the area on the south bank was totally different then.

In those days Bankside was made up of derelict warehouses, dark and sinister little alleyways that snaked behind the warehouses and echoing railway tunnels.

Clink Street, which features on both our Shakespeare and Dickens London walks, was a particularly sinister street. Indeed it was so sinister that in the 1980’s film Murder By Decree, which starred Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes trying to solve the mystery of the Jack the Ripper murders, this area was used to substitute for the streets of Whitechapel.

But then two things happened to change the area. Firstly, Sam Wanamaker realised his life long dream to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse on the south side of the River Thames. Secondly, in 1994, The Trustees of the Tate Gallery, who were looking to establish a new museum to house their modern art collection, acquired the old Bankside Station and launched an international architectural competition for a design that would transform the old Bankside Power Station into a suitable art gallery for their collection.

Their were over 70 entries but a young Swiss company were the winners because they submitted a plan that advocated working with what was left of the Bankside Power Station.

Thus in the year 2000 Tate Modern was opened by Queen Elizabeth 11 and over five million people a year now cross its threshold to admire, criticise, laugh and enjoy their collection.

So when you next join one of our London walks that corsses the Thames via the Millennium Bridge and you look up at the tall building with the soaring chimney, you will now know exactly what it is.

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Tate Modern - Is that Art On Our Walks of London.

Friday, September 18th, 2009

As our Shakespeare and Dickens London walks cross over the millennium Bridge the distinctive chimney of Bankside Power Station, home to Tate modern, looms over us.

Tate Modern is one of London’s great tourist attractions.  It is also one of the most preeminent art galleries in the world.

Since it opened  in the year 2000 over 30 million visitors have passed through its doors, 5 million of them coming in the last year alone.

But from a visual perspective the building that houses Tate Modern is almost a work of art in its own right. Indeed, since the construction of the Millennium Bridge in 2002, our London walks that head south of the river really do get a breathtaking view of it as they cross over the Thames.

It is an enormous structure, 660 feet long, its soaring brown brick chimney stretching some  320 feet into the sky, deliberately just a little shorter than the the golden cross that surmounts the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, which stands across the river from Bankside Power Station. Indeed such are its lofty proportions that Bankside Power Station has been described as an industrial cathedral.

It it was designed by the British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.  There are several examples of his work to be seen across London.  For example, it was he who designed Battersea Power Station. He was also responsible for Waterloo Bridge, and it was he who designed the ubiquitous red telephone boxes that can be seen all over the streets of London and other British towns, cities, and villages.

Bankside Power Station was constructed in two stages between 1947 and 1963.  It is constructed from steel and bricks, 4.2 million bricks to be exact.

It was powered by oil and it was this fact that led to its closure, as in the 1970s oil became so expensive that it was no longer viable to keep the power station open. So, in 1981, The Bankside Power Station closed its doors. The building stood empty as a viable use for it was sought.

Our London walks blog will continue this evening of the story of how the Bankside Power Station, St Giles Gilbert Scott’s industrial cathedral became one of the 21st century is pre-eminent art galleries.

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