The original Tate Gallery, at Millbank in London, opened in 1897. 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. It was built on the site of Millbank Penitentiary, demolished in 1892, and 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 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. It is now one of the nineteen national museums funded by the Government through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and is established under the Museums and Galleries Act 1992.
Today, what was the Tate Gallery has become Tate, a family of four galleries: Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. Tate continues to care, develop and provide public access to its national collections of British art and international modern and contemporary art.
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Tate has been free since 1947, except for a brief period in 1974.
When the gallery first opened, admission was free every day of the week except Thursday and Friday, which were designated as student days. On student days, members of the public paid an admission-charge of 6d, rising to one shilling before being reduced in 1924 to 6d again. This admission fee was finally abolished in 1947 on the 50th anniversary of the Gallery.
In 1974, the Conservative government led by Edward Heath imposed admission fees on all national museums. Shortly afterwards this government was voted out of office in the second General Election of 1974, and the charge was immediately abolished.
Since 1974, admission has been free. Tate is committed to ensuring that as much of our collection as possible is accessible to the public.
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