The newly refurbished Tate Britain is the original of four Tate galleries around the country, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives being the others. Here the national collection of British art from the year 1500 to the present is displayed, encompassing such seminal figures as Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth, John Constable and William Blake. One of Britain's best-loved and most revered painters, J.M.W. Turner, has an entire wing of Tate Britain to himself.

In the 19th century, sugar magnate Henry Tate (of Tate & Lyle fame) offered his vast art collection to the nation and asked the government of the day to provide a site for it's display; eventually the former Millbank Penitentiary was chosen and converted to it's present use.

Since the opening of Tate Modern in 2000, Tate Britain no longer displays contemporary art except during the controversial Turner Prize which it hosts annually.