A brick former power station with a single tall chimney stands beside a reconstructed timber theatre with a thatched roof, on a paved riverside walk facing St Paul's across the Thames.
What Bankside looks like
occupies the former Bankside Power Station, a long brick block along the river with a single chimney at its centre. The chimney rises 99 metres and stays below the 114 metre dome of St Paul's Cathedral, visible across the water on the opposite bank. Brown brick cladding covers the whole building in one unbroken run, built from about 4.2 million bricks.
Inside, the former Turbine Hall runs the length of the building under a glass roof extension. It is about five storeys of open floor, with 3,400 square metres of space. The hall stays largely empty between exhibitions, leaving a vast enclosed volume with bare brick walls and steel trusses.
Next to Tate Modern, is built entirely of English oak, jointed without structural steel. Its roof is thatch, the only thatched roof permitted in London since the Great Fire of 1666. The round timber frame and whitewashed plaster stand apart from every brick building along this stretch of river.
The runs out from the riverbank in front of Tate Modern, a flat steel span without suspension towers, crossing to St Paul's on the north side. The paved riverside walkway continues past the Globe and the toward St Mary Overie Dock. The , a full size wooden replica galleon, is moored there at a stone quay. , a riverside pub further east toward London Bridge, has its own terrace looking back across the water.
Shot in Bankside
Tate Modern has stood in for itself and for a fictional near future gallery, sometimes within the same film. Its chimney and its Turbine Hall have each appeared in a different production, and its own restaurant did the same for a third. The first Mission Impossible film ends at The Anchor pub, further along the riverside walk. Ethan Hunt and Luther Stickell share a drink there in the film's final scene, from 1996.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout, 2018
Tate Modern
Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt ends a chase on the gallery's own 99 metre chimney, left behind as his target escapes by helicopter. The production built a scaffold platform near the top of the real chimney for the stunt work, the first shoot ever staged there. Street View
Children of Men, 2006
Played the Ark of Arts, near future
The Turbine Hall's brick walls and steel trusses stood in for the interior of the fictional Ark of Arts, a near future gallery holding the world's great artworks. The building's own exterior never appears in this sequence, a separate power station across the river at Battersea was used for that. Street View
Bridget Jones's Diary, 2001
Bridget meets Jude, Shazza and Tom at the gallery's own Level 9 restaurant after an embarrassing mishap in front of Daniel Cleaver. The scene plays out above the galleries, with the river visible through the windows. Street View
Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool went from working warehouses to Tate Liverpool, the same move from power station to gallery that Bankside made. Cast iron columns line its dockside fronts, close in scale to the Turbine Hall's own brick and steel. The dock is an enclosed basin, so a wide shot showing water on both sides gives it away. There is no chimney here to match against Bankside's skyline. Try searching cast iron dock warehouses now.
Beacon in New York
Dia Beacon went from a 1929 box printing factory to an open plan art museum on the Hudson, the same move from power station to gallery that Bankside made. Its daylight galleries sit close in scale to the Turbine Hall's own volume. Its single storey skylit floor looks different from the Turbine Hall's five storey height and steel trusses, so an interior frame needs to stay close enough that the ceiling never enters the shot. Try searching box factory art museum now.
Speicherstadt in Hamburg, Germany
Speicherstadt in Hamburg went from working warehouses to museums and cultural venues beside the water, much like Bankside's own power station. Its red brick Gothic gables and oak pile foundations date from 1883 to 1927. The canals are narrower than the open Thames and the brick gables look distinctly German in a wide shot, so tight framing along the water holds the illusion better. Try searching red brick warehouses canal now.
.jpg)
