I still remember the first time I realised there wasn't just one Serpentine Gallery, but two.
I’d walked past Serpentine South countless times and visited its exhibitions often. But then one summer, I wandered further into Kensington Gardens and stumbled on Serpentine North, with its swooping white curves and a completely different exhibition inside.
That's the thing about the Serpentine Galleries London visitors often miss: they're a pair, not a single stop, and each one has its own personality.
Today, DOYOUSPEAKLONDON takes you on a double dose of culture... inside both Serpentine Galleries!
The Serpentine Galleries: a little bit of history
The Serpentine Galleries sit on opposite sides of the Serpentine lake, right in the middle of Kensington Gardens.
Serpentine South is the older of the two. It opened in 1970 inside a former tea pavilion built in 1934, and over the decades it's shown work by artists like Henry Moore, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Rachel Whiteread.
Serpentine North came later, in 2013.
It was designed by Zaha Hadid, tucked into a former gunpowder store known as The Magazine, with her signature fluid, almost liquid architecture wrapped around the old brick building.
Both galleries are run as one organisation, simply called Serpentine now. Together, they put on around eight exhibitions a year, spanning contemporary art, architecture and design.
And admission to both is completely free.
What makes each Serpentine Gallery special
Here's where it gets fun, because the two spaces really do feel different.
Serpentine South: a tea Pavilion turned Gallery
Step inside and it feels less like a museum, more like a beautifully dressed private residence that just happens to be hung with world-class art.
But the detail I genuinely look forward to every single year is the Serpentine Pavilion.
Each summer, Serpentine invites an architect who has never built in the UK before to design a temporary structure on the lawn outside Serpentine South. For 2026, that's "a serpentine" by LANZA atelier, the studio founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo.
I love that the Pavilion changes completely every year. One summer it's all timber and shadow, the next it's something sculptural and unexpected. It's become one of my personal markers of the London calendar, honestly.
Pavilions 2016 and 2017
Alongside the Pavilion, Serpentine also runs Park Nights, an evening series of performances and talks staged inside that year's structure.
Serpentine North is more theatrical. The Zaha Hadid extension gives it soaring white curves, a café, and a sense of drama before you've even reached the artwork.
Serpentine North's exhibitions are stunning, too. It's hosted major solo shows from artists like Lauren Halsey and Barbara Kruger over the years.
Most recently, it welcomed David Hockney's very first exhibition at Serpentine, A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, running from March to August 2026.
The show centred on his 90-metre iPad-drawn frieze charting the changing seasons at his Normandy farmhouse, alongside a set of new portraits and still lifes made specifically for the space.
It was free to visit, like everything at Serpentine, and it's exactly the kind of major-name show that quietly proves these galleries punch well above their size.
Why the Serpentine Galleries are worth visiting
Free world-class contemporary art is reason enough on its own, but the setting is really what seals it for me.
Both galleries sit inside Kensington Gardens, right by the Serpentine lake, so a gallery visit turns naturally into a proper walk.
You can drift from Serpentine South to Serpentine North along the water in under ten minutes.
And Kensington Gardens connects straight into Hyde Park, London's largest royal park and one I'd genuinely recommend building an afternoon around.
There's also something lovely about the rhythm of visiting. Pop into Serpentine South, walk the lakeside path, catch whatever the Pavilion looks like this year, then finish at Serpentine North. It's a proper afternoon, not a rushed thirty minutes.
For anyone who loves discovering the more unusual, less obvious corners of London's art scene, this pairing of a historic gallery, a Zaha Hadid building and an ever-changing architectural pavilion is hard to beat.
Feeling inspired? If you're planning a visit to the Serpentine Galleries, I'd love to hear about your experience on DOYOUSPEAKLONDON!
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Everything you need to know about the Serpentine Galleries
Address: Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA
Tickets: Free admission to both galleries and the Pavilion (walk-up entry, no booking required, though booking online is recommended for busy periods). Park Nights events are ticketed separately, around £10 / £7 concession.
Opening hours: Monday 12pm–6pm, Tuesday–Friday 10am–6pm, Saturday–Sunday 10am–7pm (hours can vary around exhibition changeovers, so it's worth checking before you go)
Website: serpentinegalleries.org
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