janisj

Were they Scary? Fun? Long Queues? What did you think of it? Can you carry a handbag or do you have to check everything?

janisj

Oops - meant Tate MODERN - duh. I knew that

gardeniapatti

Thanks for asking this janisj. Someone just told me about those! I'd like to know as well.

Does the Modern stay open late for special events like the frost fair in December?

noe847

I will be very interested in any first hand knowlege about the slides. My artist daughter and I will be in London in March, and this is right up her alley. From the website, looks like "all bags" need to be checked at the cloakroom.
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibi...itinginfo.shtm

As for the Frost Fair, it appears to be mostly an outdoor Bankside event:
http://www.visitsouthwark.com/frost-fair-15-17-december

audere_est_facere

I haven't (and you can rest assured that i am going to) but my pal has.

There aren't queues as you have to get a timed ticket.

The ride is pretty scary apparently, and the tubes aren't smooth - they're quite bumpy.

janisj

Thanks Audere. We expect a full trip report after your ride

I won't be in London again until Feb so by then maybe several Fodorites will have been/reported back.

(Drat - wish I hadn't screwed up the title)

Anniissa

I went last week. We only did the highest slide. As has been mentioned, you need to first queue up to get a timed ticket from the desk in the Turbine Hall. Then, you need to get on the slide within 30 mins of the time on your ticket. You can take no bags or loose items with you on the slide so they must be checked into the cloakroom.

Then you just need to queue up for your slide. As it is relatively new, it is very popular so, even with the timed tickets you will need to do some queuing to get on the slide. The higher slides are much more popular so expect bigger queues.

If you are planning on going, I would highly recommend that you get there as early as possible to get your timed ticket. You do not need to go on immediately but the earlier you get there, the less queueing you'll need to do. Last week, all tickets were selling out at least three hours before the museum closed.

As for the ride itself - it was great fun. The anticipation of what it is going to be like is scarier than the actual slide. It is quite fast and bumpy (you can have elbow pads if you want) but does not feel as fast as it looks from the outside. It takes about 12 seconds to go from the top to the bottom. Height restrictions are in place so small children cannot go on the higher slides.

It's open until April next year I think so if you can I would definately give it a go!

Anniissa

Just to give an idea of the time spent queueing, we were there waiting for the Tate to open at 10am so were one of the first in. It was about 10.45am by the time two of us had been down the slide. The later you get there, the more queueing you are likely to do. We were there on a weekday - weekends are even busier I believe. Of course, once its been open a while, it might get a bit less popular.

gardeniapatti

I found a website with some great pictures of the slides!

http://tinyurl.com/ycj2ak

yk

Now I'm tempted. Maybe I'll go try it out when I'm in London next month!

noe847

Come back and report!

111op

I've actually seen some of Carsten's Hoeller's work. He is an intriguing artist. If memory serves, he became an artist after getting a PhD in biology. He's Belgian, and he has collaborated with Rosemarie Trockel.

travelgirl2

This looks like so much fun. I want to go to London just to ride the slides!

Tulips

We will try them in November; really, the kids want to go, but I've said they have to see the rest of the museum as well then; what a great way to get them to go to a museum!

caroline_edinburgh

Anniissa, did you not find it painful or even uncomfortable ? I watched an arts TV presenter & a few other people going down it, on TV, & they seemed to shoot out of the bottom very fast & land on the bare floor with quite a bang. Some of them tried to slow themselves down just before the end by grabbing the sides, but I'd have thought that would risk burning your hands.

I quite fancied it before seeing that but it put me off.

Anniissa

We were told beforehand that it can be easy to catch your elbows on the sides which is why they provide elbow pads if you want to wear them. I did not see many people wear them but there were one or two. It is quite a fast ride but I did not find it particularly uncomfortable. It was more bumpy than I was expecting but not painful. It is very important to keep flat on your back with your arms crossed over your body so that you don't rub against the sides on the way down!

I landed without a problem but did notice one or two come out behind me very quickly and land sideways on the mats. The mats are quite big so should cushion most landings very well and I did not see anyone who said they had been hurt. The museum guy who we spoke to said he had been down the high slide many times one morning when it was being set up and had slightly bruised his elbow one time but had had no other problems. One thing we did notice was that smaller people seemed to go down much faster and twist round more than others.

It is very popular - the lady in the queue behind me was a teacher from the scholl just over the Millenium Bridge and she was telling us that all the teachers were popping over in their free periods to give it a go as they had all enjoyed it so much!

caroline_edinburgh

Thanks for that, Anniissa ! I didn't notice any mats on TV - maybe they've been brought in since ? But if we make it there while it's still on, perhaps I'll get DH to go on first & see how he gets on

Has anyone else read that apparently Miuccia (sp?) Prada has a slide (created by the same guy) from her ofice, so she can see all her employees as she swiftly exits directly to where her limo is waiting ? Hard to imagine...

gardeniapatti

I love the fact that the teachers are "skipping school" to ride the slides! They must be good.

111op

You can see a picture of the slides by looking at this article from today's NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/ar....html?ref=arts

(The article compares Tate Modern with MoMA NYC -- to the latter's disadvantage.)

yk

thanks for posting the link.