On the 24th August, I went with some of my family to the Tate Britain in London. It was a crazy journey, with what seemed like hundreds of people crowded into one tiny train. The fact that my baby brother was also screaming did not help matters. I’d only been to London a few times before, so it was amazing to see so many crowds moving through the streets.

The good thing about the gallery is that admission is free, and it only took 45 minutes to get to by train. At 10.00 am, we were at the Tate early, so not many people were there. We were going for the ‘Romantics’ exhibition, which my mum had told me about. We had to get the lift to the first floor, and got completely lost in all the massive marble rooms. We ended up in a room of modern art, with shiny metal objects hanging off the walls. There was a massive silver aeroplane, spinning wire contraptions and walls of shining steel squares. It wasn’t what I was expecting from an art gallery; I thought it would all be paintings and clay sculptures.

Another exhibition we stumbled into was one of the ‘minimal’ ones.  Some of these were so simple, I thought I could have done them myself. A slab of metal with a cut out rectangle in the centre, a plain painting of just the colour blue etc. Some people may find it interesting, but I wasn’t sure if it was really art or not.

We finally we arrived at the ‘Romantics’ exhibition, and the paintings were mainly from the 1800s. Some were pictures of landscapes, often dramatic like a volcano exploding or a wild storm in the middle of the sea. There was something captivating about them, much more interesting than portraits of rich aristocracy. Then there were paintings of people, normally with some dramatic emotion, like people crying, fainting or staring into the distance. There were so many, I can’t even remember them all,  but there were many famous ones like ‘The Lady of Chalot’, which you can’t see anywhere else. They have talks there about the individual paintings, and although I didn’t listen to any, I’m sure it would make them much more interesting.

We were there for 3 and a half hours in which we only covered one floor, so I think it would be better to go for only a few exhibitions. Altogether I think it was a great place to go if you like art. It’s free, fun, and you get to see lots of famous paintings up close, as well as great sculptures, photography, and metal architecture. And although I didn’t have time to see them, they also have films and sounds to interact with.

Can you recommend any other free places of interest for a fun day out? We would love to hear about them in the comments section!