Tate Modern

The permanent collection is free to walk into, and it is substantial — Picasso, Matisse, Rothko, Warhol, Hockney and a broad international contemporary collection.

The major temporary exhibitions are separately ticketed, often expensive, and are what most people mean when they say they are going to Tate Modern.

That distinction causes genuine irritation. Visitors arrive expecting the free museum they read about, find the headline show behind a paywall, and feel misled by the free-to-all messaging on the building.

Book exhibition tickets well in advance; the popular ones sell out and timed slots go first.

If you want a free afternoon of modern art, the permanent collection alone is easily worth two hours. Nothing obliges you to buy anything.

The vast entrance space, five storeys high, that was the power station’s turbine hall and is now the most distinctive gallery space in Britain.

It holds a rotating series of enormous commissioned installations, changing periodically, and it is free.

What is in it varies from the spectacular to the baffling, which is part of the deal. Some commissions have been the most talked-about art events in the country; others leave visitors standing in a large empty room wondering what they missed.

Enter by the ramp from the west rather than the side doors — walking down into the hall gives you the full scale, which is how it was designed to be entered.

The hall alone is worth the trip for the architecture even when the installation does not land.

The best-kept secret in this building and it costs nothing.

The upper floor of the Blavatnik extension has a viewing level with windows looking north across the Thames to St Paul’s, the City and the river in both directions.

There is a bar and café on the same level, but you are not obliged to buy anything to use the view.

It is one of a small number of genuinely free high viewpoints in London, alongside the Sky Garden, and it is the least publicised.

Go at dusk if you can. St Paul’s lit across the water, with the Millennium Bridge running toward it, is the composition people pay the Shard for.

The terrace levels below have been the subject of a long-running privacy dispute with the neighbouring flats, so access arrangements can change — check on arrival.

This building produces some of the most divided reviews of any London attraction, and the divide is entirely about taste.

What is here: the national collection of international modern and contemporary art from roughly the start of the twentieth century onward. Recognisable names and canonical works sit alongside conceptual pieces, video, installation and material that a proportion of visitors find impenetrable or provocative.

Visitors expecting a gallery of famous paintings find fewer than they hoped. Visitors open to contemporary work find one of the best collections in Europe.

Neither reaction is wrong, and knowing which you are likely to be saves a disappointing afternoon.

If recognisable modern masters are what you want, head for the specific collection displays rather than wandering, and check what is currently hung — the displays rotate.

A specific and repeated complaint worth passing on.

Major retrospectives at Tate Modern frequently mix the headline artist with work by contemporaries, influences and followers. A show billed around one famous name can be substantially composed of other people’s work.

Visitors who booked expecting a full retrospective of a single artist and found a third of the rooms devoted to them describe feeling short-changed.

Read the exhibition description properly before booking, not the title.

Exhibition tickets are timed and the popular ones sell out. Members enter free but are not always required to book, which contributes to the crowding inside.

If an exhibition is the reason for your visit, book it and treat the free collection as the bonus.

Worth attention in its own right, and free.

Giles Gilbert Scott designed the original power station — the same architect as Battersea and the red telephone box — and the conversion kept the industrial scale rather than disguising it.

The chimney, the brick mass, the turbine hall and the switch house all read as what they were.

The Blavatnik extension behind is a twisted brick tower with the viewing level at the top, connected to the original building at several levels.

For anyone more interested in architecture than in contemporary art, the building alone justifies an hour, and the view from the top justifies the walk up.

Two hours for the free collection at a comfortable pace, plus the Turbine Hall and the viewing level.

An hour if you are heading for one or two specific displays.

Add ninety minutes for a major ticketed exhibition.

Half a day is ample for everything.

The gallery sits on the Bankside riverside walk, so it combines naturally with the Globe next door, Borough Market fifteen minutes east, and the walk over the Millennium Bridge to St Paul’s — which takes five minutes and is one of the better short walks in London.

August is the busiest month, with April and July close behind.

January, November and December are the quietest.

Within the day, mornings are calmest. The building fills through the afternoon, particularly at weekends and on wet days when every free indoor attraction in London does.

Late opening runs on some evenings, which is the best time to use the viewing level and is considerably quieter in the galleries — worth checking for your dates.

The Turbine Hall is at its most impressive when relatively empty, which means early.

There are cafés and restaurants at several levels, including the bar on the viewing floor, and they are priced as gallery catering is.

Borough Market, fifteen minutes east along the river, is a far better lunch and is one of the best food destinations in London.

Toilets are available on most levels and are generally fine.

Cloakroom facilities exist and bags are checked on entry.

The riverside walk outside is free, busy and pleasant, with street performers and views across to the City.

There is free wifi throughout, unlike several other major London museums.

Better than a modern art gallery sounds, mostly because of the scale.

The Turbine Hall is a genuinely exciting space for a child, and the installations are often physically interactive or at least enormous.

There are family activity trails and dedicated spaces for younger visitors — ask at the information desk.

The viewing level with the river and the bridges holds attention.

What does not work is a long circuit of conceptual work in silence.

A good shape: Turbine Hall, one collection floor, the view from the top, then out onto the riverside walk and over the Millennium Bridge, which children enjoy for its own sake.

Strong. The building is modern in its conversion, with lifts to all levels, step-free access throughout, and accessible toilets on most floors.

Wheelchairs can be borrowed, and staff assistance is widely praised in visitor accounts — including examples of staff meeting visitors at the entrance with a mobility aid when asked.

The Turbine Hall ramp gives a step-free entrance from the west.

The viewing level is reachable by lift.

The main constraint is crowd density in popular exhibitions rather than the architecture.

Tate publishes detailed access information and runs relaxed openings at some times.

Blackfriars and Southwark are both around a ten-minute walk, and London Bridge is fifteen.

The Millennium Bridge crosses directly from St Paul’s on the north bank in five minutes and is the best approach — the gallery grows in front of you the whole way.

River boats stop at Bankside Pier immediately outside.

The riverside walk connects west to the Globe, the Southbank Centre and the London Eye, and east toward Borough Market and Tower Bridge.

There is no parking and the congestion charge applies.

This building divides people more than anything else in London, and the reviews reflect it — enthusiasm and bafflement in roughly equal measure.

The frustrating version: arrive expecting a free gallery of famous paintings, find the headline exhibition ticketed and sold out, wander through conceptual installations that mean nothing to you, and leave irritated by the free-to-all sign on the wall.

The good version: come in the morning, walk down the ramp into the Turbine Hall for the scale, spend an hour in the free collection displays choosing what interests you rather than completing them, go up to the free viewing level for St Paul’s across the water, and walk back over the Millennium Bridge.

Even if the art does not land, the building and the view do, and both cost nothing.