Part of the Southbank Centre, the Hayward Gallery hosts a changing roster of contemporary art in a 1960s brutalist building. It doesn't have a permanent collection; instead, it puts on three to four exhibitions a year. A huge refurbishment was completed in 2018, restoring the 66 glass-pyramid skylights to let in natural light in for the first time, among other improvements. Ticket prices vary by exhibition.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Southbank Centre

0.04 MILES

Southbank Centre, Europe's largest space for performing and visual arts, is made up of three brutalist buildings that stretch across seven riverside…

2. London Eye

0.26 MILES

It’s hard to imagine South Bank without the London Eye (officially named the lastminute.com London Eye after its current sponsor), the world’s largest…

3. Roupell St

0.28 MILES

The backstreets of Waterloo hide some amazing architecture. Roupell St is an astonishingly pretty row of low-rise workers' cottages, all sooty bricks and…

4. Leake Street Arches

0.3 MILES

A grungy road under Waterloo station seems an unlikely place to find art, theatre and restaurants, but Leake St is the latest of London's railway arches…

5. Sea Life London Aquarium

0.32 MILES

Mostly geared towards kids, the Sea Life London Aquarium includes a shark tunnel, ray lagoon and Gentoo penguin enclosures that will keep little ones…

6. County Hall

0.33 MILES

This grand building (1922) with a curved, colonnaded facade was the home of the London County Council, and later the Greater London Council, until 1986…

7. Somerset House

0.34 MILES

Designed in 1775 for government departments and royal societies – perhaps the world's first office block – Somerset House now contains galleries,…

8. London Dungeon

0.35 MILES

A scary tour of London's gruesome history awaits. Expect darkness, sudden loud noises, flashing lights, squirts of unspecified liquid and unpleasant…