Tate Modern

I've just joined the Tate Modern and thus visited the Member's Room. What a terrible design. Impossible to sit at the tables and see out of the windows, uncomfortable chairs, no art, books and very unimaginative menu. Name and shame the architects/designers.

I thought the same thing! Why would they waste that view?
The members room in the old part of the building is much superior, though it does get very busy very quickly.

Kris Beuret wrote:

I've just joined the Tate Modern and thus visited the Member's Room. What a terrible design. Impossible to sit at the tables and see out of the windows, uncomfortable chairs, no art, books and very unimaginative menu. Name and shame the architects/designers.

Oh, I quite liked it... Spent an afternoon in there working, got a short story I'd been revising and editing for months finished in a few hours, found it very inspiring! There seemed to be quite a few people in there who were working.

I was in the extension today and I was shocked at how badly stained the floors are because of spilt drinks. The floors look like they'd suck in any dirt though.

But the staff are charming

I agree.

New members' room is a bit of a bunker (albeit a bunker on the 8th floor - or is it 9th?). If it had windows at eye level, the views would be fantastic.

The expensive restaurant also has the same silly positioning of windows and consequent lack of views. I don't understand the logic for this at all.

Staff are pleasant, but the superslow queues are almost Soviet. Most/many people just want a drink...why not have one till just serving drinks?

The extension as a whole doesn't really work well imho. The ground floor bar is OK, the gallery space is also OK, and I like the look of the extension from the outside, but the building seems perversely designed NOT to allow free flow of people.

The main drawback of the "old" bit of the Tate is that it gets jammed up with people when it gets busy, but at least the staircases are fairly wide and the escalators also do a good job of shifting bodies. The new building is loads worse. It's as if they've learned nothing. Those tiny lifts (which everyone uses, just to go one or two floors, since the staircases are narrow and/or hard to locate) are comical.

Living relatively close by and, as a freelancer, sometimes having weekdays to myself, I guess it makes a difference being able going on an early Monday morning when there is few people, rather than the Friday evening or weekend rush. I absolutely love it, both the old and new sections.

I think the external design of the building is fantastic, the new shape works well with the old and the materials work well together too. Such a nice change to get away from glass.

Karen I wrote:

I think the external design of the building is fantastic, the new shape works well with the old and the materials work well together too. Such a nice change to get away from glass.

I agree. It's not very good on the inside, though, imho.

Dare I suggest an alternative view (no pun intended). The view from the new extension is not actually that good. The immediate buildings crowd out the middle and far distance which is where the landmarks are. Its quite fun watching the 'installation' of rich grumpy people pretending they are not on display (aka Neo Bankside).

The extension itself - lifts are unpleasant, the members room is claustrophic and usual problem with badly behaved entitled family groups, the space for displaying art is disappointing, the central staircase (especially the fabulous concrete benches) is fabulous but takes up almost all the space.

My favourite bit is the smashed glass door leading into the staff only section (with serious dent in the adjoining wall). I have been speculating that this is where Serota found out he was being forced to resign and had a tantrum...