Serpentine Gallery

Started in 1970 in a classical 1934 tea pavilion in a section of Kensington Gardens bordering Hyde Park, the free-of-charge Serpentine stages big-name modern and contemporary artists, from Man Ray, Henry Moore, Andy Warhol and Bridget Riley to John Currin, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober, Damien Hirst and Cornelia Parker, whose 1995 exhibition featured actress Tilda Swinton lying on show in a glass case, apparently asleep, for a week. There are also Serpentine lectures, poetry readings and a bookshop. And each year the gallery commissions international A-list architects who've previously not had anything built in the UK to design a free-access café/hanging-out pavilion on the gallery’s lawn, usually erect between July and October. Since 2000 architects have included Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Daniel Liebeskind, Toyo Ito and Oscar Niemeyer. In September 2013 the Serpentine expanded its horizons to just across the Serpentine Bridge (four minutes away) with the opening of a second space. The 900-square-metre Serpentine Sackler Gallery (address: West Carriage Drive) is housed inside a complex comprised of a former gunpowder store (The Magazine), a handsome early-20th-century portico and a 2013 wonky white addition by Zaha Hadid. There's even a 120-seat proper sit-down restaurant. Tube station: South Kensington. Landmarks within easy reach: Royal Albert Hall, Albert Memorial, V&A, Natural History Museum and Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens.