Moments from Tate Britain

The original Tate Gallery opened on London's Millbank in 1897, funded by sugar magnate Henry Tate, and rebranded as Tate Britain in 2000 once its modern and international contemporary holdings split off into the newly opened Tate Modern across the river, leaving this building dedicated specifically to British art from around 1500 to the present. Its single deepest strength is J.M.W. Turner, the Clore Gallery wing, added in 1987 specifically to house the artist's own bequest to the nation, holds the largest collection of Turner's paintings and works on paper anywhere, letting you trace his evolution from precise topographical painting toward the almost abstract, light-dissolved late works that influenced generations of later artists.

Tate Britain is also the home of the Turner Prize exhibition each year, Britain's most prominent and reliably controversial contemporary art award, which has launched furious tabloid debates over the decades about what does and doesn't count as art. Go to the Clore wing specifically for Turner rather than assuming the main galleries cover him adequately, the sheer scale of the bequest, thousands of works, means most of his output is concentrated there rather than scattered through the building's broader chronological displays.