Tate Modern Sued Over Bankside Viewing Platform Peeping Toms

Richard Rodgers,Tate Modern,Neo Bankside,Dispute

Half dozen residents living in a Richard Rodgers designed luxury-flat tower-block located across from the newly opened Tate Modern extension have launched a lawsuit against the gallery. The owners are claiming their privacy is being invaded by visitors to the new Tate 360 degree viewing platform. They have written that “voyeurism is affecting their quality of life, putting them under “ constant surveillance,” and turning their homes into “goldfish bowls.”

Nicholas Serota Advised Tate Modern Neighbors to Get Curtains

The new wing of the internationally renowned Herzog & de Meuron-designed extension opened last year, along with a viewing deck on the top floor. Neo Bankside the name of the complex reportedly sold the flats for prices between £1.5 million and £19 million. The design incorporates floor to ceiling windows with views of the river and the London skyline. However, some of the properties face the museum directly.

Neo Bankside In Dispute With Tate Modern
Neo Bankside In Dispute With Tate Modern

“I don’t know how many people realised that the Tate extension would include this viewing deck… I understand where they’re coming from because they’ve lost their privacy,” Suzanne Goldman, a resident of Neo Bankside whose apartment does not face the Tate, told the Guardian. The residents have offered to buy Tate Modern a screen to cover part of the viewing platform, however, the gallery has refused as it will spoil the architecturally excellent purpose-built viewing platform, which is free to the public, offering one of the best views of London. Many of the flats were sold off plan before the extension to the Tate was complete. Artlyst believes that it would be impossible to close the Tate viewing platform on one side as it would compromise the integrity of the original design and function of the building…. and besides Neo-Bankside faces other blocks of flats in the same complex with similar privacy issues. If you want to live in an urban area you naturally suffer a loss of privacy… People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…Get curtains!

 

Photos P C Robinson © Artlyst 2017

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