Drawing a crowd: Tate Modern pips British Museum to the post as UK’s most popular visitor attraction
Tate Modern has knocked the British Museum off the top spot of the UK’s most popular visitor attractions, which it has occupied for a decade.
The British Museum welcomed 5.82m visitors through its doors last year, while Tate Modern overtook it with 5.87m people – an increase of 3.7 per cent on 2017.
Read more: Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy at the Tate Modern
It is thought Tate Modern’s new Switch House wing, as well as blockbuster exhibitions on Picasso and Italian sculptor Modigliani, are behind the rise in visitors.
Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy drove up visitor numbers at the Tate Modern (Source: Getty)
The British Museum saw a slight decrease of 1.3 per cent, but an additional 9m people saw British Museum objects outside London through major touring exhibitions, according to the Association of Leading Tourist Attractions.
Tourism Minister Michael Ellis said: “Britain’s tourism industry is booming. I am delighted to see such strong visitor figures for destinations across the nation. We are home to some of the best art galleries, museums and heritage sites in the world and these figures prove it.”
Ranked: London dominates the top 10
London destinations made up all of the top 10 attractions in the UK, with the National Gallery retaining third place on the list, welcoming 5.7m visitors. The Natural History Museum hailed an 18 per cent increase in visitors to remain the fourth most popular.
The Southbank Centre benefited from the reopening of its Hayward Gallery to celebrate a 31 per cent increase in visitors to 4.5m, taking fifth place.
| Attraction | Visitor numbers |
| Tate Modern | 5,868,552 |
| British Museum | 5,828,552 |
| National Gallery | 5,735,831 |
| Natural History Museum | 5,226,320 |
| Southbank Centre | 4,451,934 |
| V&A Museum | 3,967,566 |
| Science Museum | 3,174,963 |
| Somerset House | 3,143,626 |
| Tower of London | 2,858,336 |
| Royal Museums Greenwich | 2,549,833 |
Beyond the M25
Notably for the rest of the UK, the World Museum in Liverpool saw a dramatic 111 per cent visitor increase to become the most popular non-London museum, receiving 1.4m visits.
Liverpool's World Museum celebrated a 111 per cent visitor increase with its show on China's terracotta warriors (Source: Getty)
Read more: Brexit sees London shift focus to long-haul visitors
This was down to the “phenomenal” success of its blockbuster exhibition on China’s first emperor, which featured specimens from the world-famous terracotta army. Despite this, the museum was just the 23rd most popular attraction in the UK.
The most popular outside the capital was the National Museum of Scotland in 11th place with 2.2m visits, while the most visited English attraction outside London was Chester Zoo, in 13th place with 1.96m visits.