Its great at the Tate!

I had to go down to the Tate Modern and have a quick squizz at the new Carsten Höller installation. The slides are amazing just to look at as you walk into the Turbine Hall. It is a massive space and really they don't occupy as much room as i thought they would as they are just down one side really. I'm not sure I (nor many other people there at the time) appreciate them as "art". Basically they have just turned the Tate into a giant funfair for a few months. If it boosts their visits to the other exhibits then thats good but I doubt it would. The place was crammed full of dregs at 10am on a Sunday morning queuing to get on the rides like Alton Towers.

There are four big slides and one baby one. The one I saw most injury and swearing on was the one leaving the fourth floor. The initial drop is very steep and has a couple of sharp turns. If you are not positioned correctly or have a bit of a floppy neck then your head is likely to crack the side with a loud and resonating result. Swearing and generally all noise is amplified a lot through these tubes and people screaming and generally making idiots of themselves can be heard throughout! The one in the pictures below is the biggest one from the 5th floor. Its pretty tame as there are no steep drops or reversing curves, just one long bumpy ride to the bottom. Unfortunately as I was on a limited timeframe I did not have time to get a ticket for any of the slides so I will have to save that pleasure for the next trip to London. That left me plenty of time to go around all the other free bits before I headed back to pick up my bags and jump back on the train to Manchesterford.