Tate Modern Member’s Room

Aloofness does occasionally appear in my vocabulary. I’m hardly an ambassador of places that are frequented by the hoi polloi. But there are one or two places in London where members of the public loiter around religiously, either through convictions or forced upon. Tate Modern is such a place. For all its cultural attributes, it more than compensates for my desire of all things discerning and indeed aloof. If you’ve never been here, then you’ve never been to London.
Like the Royal Bank of Scotland*, Tate Modern is funded by the Government and the taxpayer. Tate Modern is quite rightly yours and mine (except Frank Gallagher at al) to revel in; to me it’s simply an undying celebration of London’s repose.
I’m not ashamed to profess that I’m a fully paid up Member of the Tate Group and I’ve been for a number of years. One of the reasons for my joining up is the exhibitions, and to ensure a crowd -free and queue-free situation, Members are also granted private views. There’s one thing I wish to rant briefly about- I find that the penalty imposed by the Tate on people not paying by Direct Debit for the membership deplorable. In principal I’m no fan of Direct Debit (it has serious consequences like when your paycheque inadvertently goes astray or in most cases, folks forget about them anyway), reluctantly I yielded to the admin dorks of Tate and coughed the extra 15% premium by paying up front with cash! My skin is thick but obviously not thick enough with situations like this.
There’s a certain degree of perversity laced with my visits to the Modern or Tate Britain for that matter. I surreptitiously take pictures of the works of art with my mobile phone. As we may all know, this is disallowed for obvious reasons and I'm beginning to dread that one day my membership will be revoked.

The pictures I take are primarily used as wallpapers for my PC and the said mobile. Some examples as follow, all suitably indicative of some kind of stealth involved.































With the cultural fix fulfilled, the likes of the caffeine and cake need to be addressed.
The Tate Modern Member’s Room is the second reason why I took up the membership. Unlike the congested broom cupboard equivalent at Tate Britain,
there’s plenty of space here.
Located on the sixth floor of the building, the views of London are pre-determinedly breathtaking.
The balconies on either side of the Room are perfect for the coming summer months.

Cakes of more than estimable quality are available

Stick to tea as the coffee is shit (no point mincing here)

So if you've £50.00 or so to spare, join up and enjoy the rather nice privileges for the next 12 months. There's not much to loose except that a lot of people are now getting savvy and it may well get pretty crowded in the Member's Room soon. Recommended.

*As of today it has been reported that over 70% of RBS is now owned by the peeps, I'm humming and harring on whether to transfer my entire savings of 234.03 squid from the Spanish Abbey to our bank.

Bankside
London SE1 9TG


www.tate.org.uk