Aileen was instructed by Tate in its successful defence of an action brought by neighbours of the Tate Modern who complained that the operation of Tate Modern’s viewing gallery amounted to a nuisance and infringed their rights to private life. Mann J ruled that neither the operation of Tate Modern nor that of the viewing gallery amounted to “functions of a public nature” with the effect that the direct claim under the Human Rights Act 1998 failed. As regards the nuisance claim, Mann J decided that the design of the claimants’ flats, which featured floor to ceiling windows and very little obstruction to the eye, itself contributed to the claimants’ exposure to the public gaze from the viewing platform and that this could not render Tate’s operation of the viewing gallery unreasonable.
Read the judgment here.
