Serpentine Galleries, Contemporary art gallery in Kensington Gardens, London, England
The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, linked by the bridge over the Serpentine Lake. Serpentine South occupies a single-storey red-brick former tea pavilion with a white colonnade and a lantern at the roof apex. Serpentine North, five minutes' walk away, is a former gunpowder store with a Zaha Hadid extension.
Serpentine South opened in 1970 in a former tea pavilion built in 1933–34 by the Welsh architect James Grey West, beside the Serpentine lake that gives the galleries their name. Serpentine North opened in 2013 in The Magazine, a Grade II* listed gunpowder store of 1805, with an extension by Zaha Hadid Architects; it was renamed Serpentine North in 2021.
The annual pavilion program brings a new temporary structure to the garden each summer, which visitors can walk through and experience firsthand. This structure stands for three months as a working space and often serves as a gathering place for events.
Both locations offer free entry most days of the week, and visitors can walk through the park to move between the two spaces. Signage throughout the park helps with orientation and pathways between the two buildings are easy to navigate.
Since 2000, a specially designed pavilion has appeared in the garden each summer and remains visible for just a few months. These structures are open for visitors to enter and disappear at the end of the season, giving the park a new appearance each year.
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