Tate Britain: A Free Collection, £24 Exhibitions and 1.15 Million Visitors in a Tight Year

Tate Britain is the quieter Tate. Tate Modern, across the river in the old power station, took about 4.5 million visits in 2025. Tate Britain on Millbank took 1,149,325, down 6% on the year before. It's the one Londoners recommend when you ask where to see paintings without a crowd.

The permanent collection is free and runs from the 1500s to the present, all British art. Turner has his own wing, the Clore Gallery, with the biggest collection of his work anywhere. There's Constable, Hogarth, the Pre-Raphaelites, Bacon, Hockney. You can walk in and see the lot.

One of the main galleries, mid-afternoon. Pale walls, a wooden bench in the middle, two marble sculptures on plinths, a dark green marble doorway at the far end, and one man standing in front of a large painting with the room nearly to himself. That's the Tate Britain experience.

Where the money comes from

Free entry doesn't mean free to run. About 70% of Tate's income is money it raises itself, from tickets for exhibitions, memberships, shops, cafés and donations. In March 2025 Tate cut about 40 jobs, roughly 7% of staff, through voluntary redundancy and a hiring freeze, and ran a deficit budget covered from reserves.

The paid shows are the engine. This year's Whistler exhibition, which ran from May 21 to September 27, cost £24 standard and £22 concession, with £5 tickets for 16 to 25-year-olds on the Tate Collective scheme and free entry for under-12s. That's about the going rate for a major London exhibition now.

This autumn the UK government ruled out charging overseas visitors for the national collections, so the free rooms stay free for everyone.

Getting the most of it

Start with the Turners in the Clore wing, then walk the main galleries in date order. The building rewards a slow loop of two hours. Pimlico is the nearest tube, about ten minutes on foot, or take the Tate Boat along the Thames from Tate Modern if you want to do both in a day.

Go on a weekday. Bring a sandwich for the riverside benches outside. The paintings are free, and so is the view of the river.