Once you leave the enclosed elevator lobby, you’re on an open-air balcony that encircles the building, facing the back of the stylized chimney that served the old power station. You could get a similar view from the Golden Gallery at the top of the dome of St. Paul’s, but that costs more than £20 ($25) and requires a 550-step slog up.
The views from the back, or southern, side of the Tate’s Level 10 are largely blocked by modern condos. Those flats, which were marketed as architectural trophies to some of London’s most moneyed buyers, are encased in glass that exposes everything within to view. And even though those residents knew the kind of apartments they were buying, they still got together and sued to halt what they called an invasion of their privacy by the Tate’s observation deck.
It was that lawsuit, and not the pandemic or even the attack on the child, that prevented Level 10 from opening for so long.
Even now, access to the southern side of the viewing deck is blocked. The Tate also had to slap up a bevy of warning signs that beg visitors not to take photos of the wealthy locals inside their showy enclaves.
Level 10’s front and side views are the ones most tourists care about, anyway. Those vantages are more about history and London’s world-famous riverside grandeur than surveillance.
But you’d better keep your camera lens trained solely on the northern, river side. Immediately after Level 10 reopened, there were reports that visitors are being chastised for pointing cameras anywhere near the direction of those apartments, even if just taking westerly photos of the river like the one below, taken in 2016.
Best to think of Tate Modern’s Level 10 as an excellent spot for capturing Thames-facing photos of St. Paul’s Cathedral.