Photos: The Tate Modern's online overhaul

Art appreciation goes high tech...

Visitors to the Tate Modern on London's South Bank will now be able to get a virtual peek at the gallery's art before even setting foot inside, through its famous Turbine Hall.

To complement the major rehang the Tate has recently completed, it has overhauled its online presence, offering new functionality to art lovers and would-be visitors.

The site, which has been developed with BT, now gets more than one million visitors per month.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Tate Modern's revamped site now boasts a virtual tour to let new visitors plan their route through the gallery, floor by floor, according to which art works they'd like to see.

The collection is also broken down by period and year in a timeline which shows how each work fits into the historical climate in which it was produced.

Photo credit: Tate Modern

The same functionality will also be available on touch screens throughout the museum, to help the art-bewildered get the most out of their trip.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Andrew Marr, host of the BBC's Sunday AM programme and member of the Tate's council, was there to launch the new site. Those logging into the Tate Modern's new website will be able to see a personal tour of the gallery created by Marr.

He said: "When people come to the Tate Modern, it can be a bit intimidating – it's so huge, there's so much here. One of the things this can do is resolve a lot of those anxieties."

Photo credit: Jo Best