Tate Moderns Viewing Platform Is a Nuisance, U.K. Supreme Court Says

For years, tourists could look from the top of Londons most popular art museum into the apartments opposite. Soon, they may be permanently stopped from doing so.

Since 2016, the millions of tourists who flock each year to Tate Modern, Londons most popular art museum, have been able to do something unusual: stare into the apartments opposite, as if they were artworks.

From a platform on the museums 10th floor built to offer panoramic views of the city, visitors could peer directly at dozens of luxury dwellings, all of which have floor-to-ceiling windows. Sometimes, nosy art lovers would catch a glimpse of a resident of the multimillion-dollar homes making breakfast or reading a weekend newspaper.

On Wednesday, Britains Supreme Court ruled that tourists using the viewing platform was a clear case of nuisance even if ogling homeowners was not their purpose.

In a regal London courtroom, Lord Leggatt, the lead judge in the ruling, said that hundreds of thousands of visitors each year headed to the platform and many took photographs of the apartments. It is not difficult to imagine how oppressive living in such circumstances would feel for any ordinary person much like being on display in a zoo, he said.