History of Tate
Introduction
The original Tate Gallery, at Millbank in London, opened in 1897 on the site of the former Millbank Penitentiary. Its official name was the National Gallery of British Art, but it became popularly known as the Tate Gallery after its founder Sir Henry Tate. This name was not officially adopted, however, until 1932.
The gallery was designed to house the collection of nineteenth-century British painting and sculpture given to the nation by Sir Henry Tate, together with some British paintings transferred from the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
At that time its responsibilities were specifically for modern British art, defined then as works by artists born after 1790.
In 1917 the gallery was also made responsible for the national collection of international modern art and for British art going back to about 1500.
Tate became wholly independent from the National Gallery in 1955 and in 1992 was accorded corporate status by the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 , which invested all property, rights and liabilities in the Board.
In 2000, what was the Tate Gallery became Tate, a family of four galleries: Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. Tate also has a presence on the web – Tate Online. Tate's reach extends beyond the galleries nationally and internationally through collaborations, loans and tours.
Below, you can find more information about the history and development of each of Tate's galleries.
If you would like to explore some of the archive material, including letters, architectural plans, and photographs of key moments in Tate's history, such as the flood of 1928 and the bomb damage in the Second World War, visit Archive Journey: Tate History.
Tate Britain
The original building at Millbank has undergone a number of expansions since it first opened.
Funding for galleries for the modern international collection were given by Lord Duveen and opened in 1926. The following year, Lord Duveen donated money for the refurbishment of Tate’s restaurant, including new murals by the painter Rex Whistler. He also supported the building of the great central sculpture galleries in 1937, designed by J. Russell Pope and Romaine Walker. A major extension in the north-east corner, designed by Llewellyn-Davies, Weeks, Forestier and Bor opened in 1979.
In the same year, the Gallery took over the adjacent disused military hospital, enabling the building of the new Clore Gallery, which was opened in 1987 with the support of the Clore Foundation. This provided much needed housing for The Turner Bequest of 300 oil paintings and many thousands of drawings and watercolours by Britain's great Romantic artist, J.M.W. Turner.
By about the late 1980s it was clear that the Tate Collection had hugely outgrown the Millbank site. It was decided to create a new gallery in London to display the international modern component of the Tate Collection.
For the first time London would have a dedicated museum of modern art and meanwhile the Tate building at Millbank would return to its original function as the national gallery of British art.
By 1997 a major development project was underway at Millbank in preparation for its new function and in celebration of its centenary.
The Tate Gallery at Millbank was re-launched as Tate Britain in March 2000.
Completing the re-launch of Tate Britain, the Tate Centenary Development was opened in November 2001. This provided Tate Britain with ten new, and five refurbished, galleries as well as the dramatic new Manton Entrance on Atterbury Street.
Read more on the history of Tate Britain.
Tate Modern
Plans to open a second gallery in London devoted to Tate’s national collection of international modern art were first announced in 1992 and the search began for an appropriate site.
The former power station at Bankside was selected in 1994, and in 1995 Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron were appointed to convert the building into a gallery. That their proposal retained much of the original character of the building was a key factor in this decision.
The iconic power station consisted of a stunning turbine hall, 35 metres high and 152 metres long, with the boiler house alongside it. The turbine hall became a dramatic entrance area, with ramped access from the west, as well as a display space for large sculptural projects and commissions. The boiler house became the galleries.
Since opening in May 2000, more than 40 million people have visited Tate Modern, which, although it was only built to accomodate two million visitors, attracts some five million visitors per year. It is one of the UK's top three tourist attractions and generates an estimated £100m in economic benefits to London annually.
In 2009 Tate embarked on a major project to develop Tate Modern. Working again with Herzog & de Meuron, the transformed Tate Modern will make use of the power station’s spectacular redundant oil tanks, increase gallery space by 60 per cent, and provide much improved visitor facilities.
Read more about the history of Tate Modern.
Tate Liverpool
Plans were set in motion in 1980 to create a major contemporary art gallery in the north of England.
The ‘Tate of the North’ was intended to be the home of the national collection of modern art in the north of England. It was to have a distinct identity from the Tate in London, and would be dedicated to showing modern art in the north and encouraging a new, younger audience.
Tate Liverpool was opened in May 1988 in Albert Dock, one of the largest group of Grade 1 listed buildings in Britain. The gallery underwent further development in 1998 to create additional galleries, more space for educational activities and events, and improved visitor facilities.
2008 marked Tate Liverpool’s 20th anniversary as well as Liverpool's status as the European Capital of Culture 2008. The year saw an unprecedented number of visitors to the gallery, for the first time exceeding one million, and cemented its position as a venue for major European exhibitions of important modern art.
Read more on the history of Tate Liverpool.
Tate St Ives
Proposals for a permanent gallery dedicated to showing the work of artists living in and around St Ives had been discussed since the 1960s. But it was not until the 1980s that the dream looked as if it might become a reality.
Tate had formed a close link with St Ives when it took over the management of the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1980. At the same time, plans were afoot to open a publicly-funded gallery with works loaned from the Tate Collection.
In 1988 a building was chosen on the site of a former gasworks overlooking Porthmeor Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. The architects Eldred Evans and David Shalev were selected for design that echoed the shapes of the former gasworks, including the rotunda which forms the heart of the gallery.
Tate St Ives opened in June 1993. In just six months it had welcomed over 120,000 visitors – 50,000 more than the original target for the entire year. Since then, the gallery has been an outstanding success with an average of 240,000 visitors per year.
The gallery is planning for an exciting new phase in its development. The major building plans will provide better exhibition and display spaces, new education areas and improved visitor facilities, allowing greater scope for understanding the heritage of the St Ives artists' colony.
Read more on the history of Tate St Ives.
Tate Directors
In its more than 200-year history, Tate has had eight Directors, previously known as ‘Keepers’. Click on the links below to find out more about the lives of these Directors, and their achievements at Tate:
- Charles Holroyd, Keeper (1897–1906)
- D.S. MacColl, Keeper (1906–11)
- Charles Aitken (1911–30)
- J.B. Manson (1930–38)
- Sir John Rothenstein (1938–64)
- Sir Norman Reid (1964–79)
- Sir Alan Bowness (1980–88)
- Sir Nicholas Serota (1988–present)