Tate Modern at 25: ‘It utterly changed the face of London’

It has hosted a huge spider and a pickled shark – and despite financial pressures, there can be little doubt about the gallery’s seismic impactOpening night at Tate Modern, 25 years ago this May, was the kind of party that defines an era. Stars of the arts world and politics, including prime minister Tony Blair, attended. All of them were dwarfed by a giant ­spider – Louise Bourgeois’s visiting sculpture – perched on the gangway over the vast, packed Turbine Hal