Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Millennium Bridge
This pedestrian bridge was built in 2000 to connect the Tate Modern with St. Paul's
Cathedral and The City. For its first two glorious days, Londoners made the pleasant
seven-minute walk across...before the $25 million “bridge to the next millennium” started
wobbling dangerously (insert your own ironic joke here) and was closed for rethinking.
After much work, 20 months, and $8 million in retrofits, the bridge reopened. Nicknamed
the “blade of light,” it was designed (partly by Lord Norman Foster, who also did the 30
St. Mary Axe Tower and City Hall downstream) to allow a wide-open view of St. Paul's.
Now stabilized, it links two revitalized sections of London.
Tate Modern
London's large, impressive modern art collection is housed in a former power sta-
tion—typical of the move to renovate empty, ugly Industrial Age hulks on the South Bank.
Even if you don't tour the collection, pop inside the north entrance (free) to view the spa-
cious interior, decorated each year with a new industrial-sized installation by one of the
world's top contemporary artists. As the Tate is in the process of adding a new annex (be-
hind the building), it's interesting to see what new spaces they've opened up to the public.
