Friday 24 May 2013

Tate Modern, Southbank

Sorry for the lack of posts just recently - it's mainly due to laziness but also partly due my wonderful identical twin have wonderful identical twins!! Hurray! The new family of four live close to Tower Bridge, and while I know the Southbank pretty well, I'm putting on my 'incompetent mother' hat and having a nose into what's available for incompetent mothers round their neck of the woods. First up: Tate Modern. 

I'd heard good things about Tate Modern, but I'll confess my first couple of trips as a mother were a little disappointing. As it's always so crowded, it's pretty difficult to find a quiet spot to feed a baby - and after asking numerous members of staff for the best place I was none the wiser. What a change from places like the V&A and the Natural History Museum.... However, I did find a lovely huge room on the ground floor where I was able to feed Cosmo in peace. (This was late in the day - I have a feeling it was heaving with hundreds of school children earlier in the day...)

The second disappointment was the changing facilities. Firstly, there's a single changing room on the ground floor with a single changing wall mount. On two separate visits I found it locked... and was told I had to ask for the key at the cloakroom. On my second visit, the room was open but there was a queue of exasperated mothers waiting to change their exasperated babies. (There is also a nursing chair inside, but who would feed their baby there when there's so few changing facilities?) My spies informed me there were changing facilities in the men's toilets, but none in the women's or disabled.

Ho hum. On a positive note, we did see some great art and Cosmo enjoyed this visit more than any other place he's been to. Maybe it was the big white walls or crowds of people, or maybe it was just his good mood - but he didn't stop smiling. Despite the lack of facilities, we'll definitely be returning, but not sure what we'll do when Cosmo and his little cousins all want changing at once...