Catalogue description Tate Gallery: Buildings: Papers and Correspondence

This series relates to the Tate Gallery's buildings and comprises:
Maintenance, 1890-1992.
Security, 1962-1963
Fire precautions, 1968-1980.
Flood precautions, 1928-1983.
Duveen Galleries (Modern Foreign Galleries), 1916-1969.
Duveen Galleries (New Sculpture Gallery), 1927-1938.
NEQ Extension, 1953-1979.
Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, 1969-1982.
New Museums, 1978-1987.
Clore Gallery, 1979-1998.
Nomura, 1986-1992.

Archive catalogue page is available via the Tate website

Early plans are held in: WORK 33

See also TG 12 Tate Modern Project: TG 12

Access conditions: No records held at The National Archives in this departmental code

The records have either been deposited in the archives via the Director's Office or had previously been transferred to Gallery Records or its predecessors.

The original building designed by Sidney Smith was opened in 1897 and paid for by Sir Henry Tate. The first extension, also provided by Tate, was handed over to H.M. Office of Works in November 1899. In 1910 the new Turner Gallery (provided by Sir Joseph Duveen) was opened and in 1926 King George V opened the Modern Foreign Gallery and Sargent Gallery paid for by Sir Joseph Duveen the younger (later Lord Duveen of Millbank). This was followed in 1937 by the new sculpture gallery also donated by Lord Duveen.

In 1969 the adjacent site of the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital was allocated to the Tate for expansion. The extension building on the old site was opened in 1979 and the Clore Gallery on the QAMH site in 1987. The Tate Gallery Centenary Development was completed in 2001.