24. October 2023
The south facade of the Tate Modern's Blavatnik Building showing the former 360-degree observation deck on the building's 10th floor. (Photo: Images George Rex/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Eight months after Britain's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the residents of Neo Bankside, whose apartments sit next to a 10th-floor observation deck at Tate Modern, it's been determined the Tate will restrict access on that level, putting “an end to the nuisance.”
The observation deck with 360-degree panoramic views of London opened at the top of the Blavatnik Building, the brick extension to the Tate Modern designed by Herzog & de Meuron, in 2016, a few years after the completion of NEO Bankside, a residential development designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (now RSHP). While the Herzog & de Meuron edifice is brick with selective openings, RSHP designed NEO Bankside with floor-to-ceiling windows, all the better to look out from — but also to be peered at by tourists at the Tate.
Appropriately, five residents of NEO Bankside brought a claim against the Tate in 2019, their lawyers calling the observation deck a nuisance and an invasion of privacy. A judge ruled against the residents, recommending that — of all things — they buy curtains. The lawyers appealed, only to have the residents' complaint dismissed once again: “The law does not always provide a remedy for every annoyance to a neighbor,” the ruling said, “however considerable that annoyance may be.”
Looking south from the 10th-floor observation deck toward Neo Bankside in 2017, with interim signage on display. (Photo: Joe Shlabotnik/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
A hearing in December 2021 overturned the two lower-court rulings, sending the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in February of this year “that the Tate’s use of the viewing gallery does give rise to liability to the residents under common law nuisance and that the case should be remitted to the High Court to determine the appropriate remedy.” The remedy was finally determined last week, with the Tate Modern deciding “not to operate Level 10 of the Blavatnik Building in such way that would enable visitors to engage in intrusive viewing or photography of neighboring flats.”
Put another way, the Tate will be operating Level 10 of the Blavatnik Building as it has been since reopening it last month, following a long closure due to the coronavirus pandemic and the lawsuit with NEO Bankside. No longer a 360-degree observation deck, Level 10 is now an espresso bar with views on three sides (not four) and additional signage, like above, deterring photography. And who needs views into neighboring apartments, when the panoramic views of London across the Thames are so stunning?
