Matisse effect helps Tate Modern to record 5.7 million visitors

Tate Modern bounced back in 2014 after a dip in visitor numbers the previous year.

The gallery's strong performance was boosted by the success of the Henri Matisse cut-outs exhibition last summer.

The visitor numbers were revealed in the annual release of statistics by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA).

Southbank Centre is included in the ALVA statistics for the first time, and tops the local league table of attractions with 6.2 million visitors.

Artistic director Jude Kelly said: "It's very exciting to have been welcomed as an ALVA member and we're thrilled to feature so highly in their annual list of top visitor attractions.

"Drawing on our rich heritage as London's festival site, we have been ambitiously growing our year-round festival programme over the last few years, reinforcing Southbank Centre's position as a thriving, vibrant destination that delights in placing excellence and egalitarianism side by side.

"Through our festivals, we bring together a diverse mix of artists, partners, communities and audiences in our venues and across our 21-acre site at the heart of London's South Bank."

The new First World War Galleries at Imperial War Museum London saw almost 1 million visitors in just six months.

Visits to the Tower Bridge Exhibition – with its new glass floor – were up nine per cent to nearly 650,000.

The exhibition and tour at Shakespeare's Globe marked up a 1.7 per cent increase in visitors with nearly 358,000.

Just over 346,000 people visited HMS Belfast last year.

The ALVA stats do not include The View from the Shard or any of the Merlin Entertainments attractions on the South Bank such as the London Eye and the London Dungeon.