Serpentine Gallery

The secluded location to the west of the Long Water in Kensington Gardens makes this small and airy gallery for contemporary art an attractive destination. A rolling two-monthly programme of exhibitions featuring up-to-the-minute artists keeps the Serpentine in the arts news, as does the annual Serpentine Pavilion: every spring an internationally renowned architect is commissioned to build a new pavilion that opens to the public between June and September. There's a good little art bookshop too, which handily stays open in between exhibitions while the gallery space itself closes.