Somerset House, the central London centre for innovation and contemporary art, has announced a free weekend of interactive events to celebrate 25 years of public opening. The Step Inside 25 Weekend—to be held on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September—is designed to reveal some of the hidden sides of the palace-sized 18th-century complex overlooking the river Thames, as well as the energy of the artists and members of other creative industries who have studios and offices in the building.
The Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani, a resident of Somerset House Studios, will be showing The Spell or The Dream—a multimedia installation addressing the fairytale emblem of the sleeping figure—in the Somerset House courtyard, the finest such Neo-classical space in London. Another resident artist, the musician Gaika, will present a sculptural and sonic installation, Tomb of the Sophists, and invite artists and audiences to engage with the work in the Portico Rooms overlooking the Thameside terrace.
Nick Ryan, also a resident artist, will represent his 2022 commission The VoiceLine—an instrument for voice, sound, music and audio storytelling which was created to mark the historic role played by the area surrounding Somerset House in the early years of BBC radio; at Marconi House, Savoy Hill, and Bush House. The VoiceLine will be presented in the Deadhouse, a series of subterranean spaces directly beneath the centre of the courtyard which are rarely open to the public but are sometimes used as an atmospheric, subterranean, film location.
Visitors will also be able to see work by the six awardees of Somerset House’s Talent 25—a new scheme designed to provide a spotlight for artistic innovators who have studios or office space in the Somerset House community. The first winners, announced in May, have been awarded bursaries to create new work during a programme mentored by the artist Yinka Ilori.
These winners are Tyreis Holder, an artist working in new ways with textiles, from Somerset House Studios; Identity 2.0, an art project founded by Arda Awais & Savena Surana from Somerset House Exchange to make the concept of digital identity accessible for a broad audience; and enorê, an artist working with ceramics who is developing her own 3D clay printer. They are joined by Piarvé Wetshi, from Somerset House’s Black Business Residency, who is co-founder of Colèchi, a Black-owned collective and research agency focused on sustainable development across the fashion industry; and Shanti Bell, a multidisciplinary artist with a fashion background who creates experiential sculpture.
The artist Yinka Ilori (seated centre), mentor of Talent 25, in the Maker Street site of artists’ studios at Somerset House with (from left) the Talent 25 awardees Shanti Bell; Piarvé Wetshi; enorê; Tyreis Holder; and Savena Surana and Arda Awais of identity 2.0 Photograph: Jas Lehal/PA Media Assignments
Ilori’s association with Somerset House goes back to 2019 when, at the invitation of the curator Zak Ové, he transformed the Neo-Classical building to form a colourful backdrop for the work of 110 artists in Get Up Stand Up Now, a celebration of half a century of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. “Somerset House has played a pivotal role in my creative journey,” Ilori says, “offering a platform that nurtures innovation and amplifies voices that might otherwise go unheard. I’m proud to support Talent 25, an initiative that reflects Somerset House’s ongoing commitment to fostering the next generation of forward-thinking talent.”
Jonathan Reekie, director of Somerset House since 2014, says the institution is “much loved as a London cultural space and it has also become a home to many of the UK’s best creatives: a powerhouse for the next generation of talent. The Step Inside weekend is a rare opportunity for the public to explore the hidden corners of our historic site and experience the incredible work made here.”
A former home to the Inland Revenue
Thanks to the foresight and drive of the late Jacob Rothschild, the financier and one of the most consequential and innovative figures in the UK art world, Somerset House was transformed from a purpose-built home to the taxation arm of the UK civil service—it was also formerly home to the Royal Academy of the Arts— into a welcoming home for the arts at the heart of London’s West End.
As the tax authorities moved out, the Somerset House Trust took possession of the William Chambers-designed building by degrees, starting in 2000. The trust’s original intention was to make the complex a home to museum-quality collections. It had, and still has, the world-class Courtauld Collection and Courtauld Institute as tenants in the north range overlooking the Strand.
The Hermitage Rooms and the Gilbert Collection were the first to occupy the south range overlooking the Thames. By 2007 both had left, following which that side of the building, and the great central courtyard, became home to temporary exhibitions, to London Fashion Week and art fairs such as 1-54 and Photo London.
Under Reekie’s direction the temporary, kunsthalle-type, exhibitions have acquired a distinctive character; the sort of shows that might not be programmed elsewhere in London by institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum or the British Museum. In an interview in May with The Art Newspaper, Reekie cited the 2024 exhibition Cute (on “cuteness” in contemporary culture) and the 2025 exhibition Soil: The World at our Feet as typical of this new brand of Somerset House shows.
A place for contemporary artists and creative businesses
Both The Step Inside 25 Weekend and Talent 25 bring to the fore the extent and quality of the creative community of artists and business leaders who occupy space throughout the enormous building, much of it beneath street level. The scope and the variety of the accommodation, and of its innovative occupants, often comes a revelation to first-time visitors, not least in the street of light and airy artist’s studios to be found in Maker Street, running through the basement of the wing that flanks Waterloo Bridge.
What might easily be taken for granted is the amount of additional public amenity, and welcome, that the whole Somerset House project has provided, as envisioned by Rothschild in the late 1990s. The final phase was completed in 2020-21 during the Covid-19 lockdown.
A view of the River Terrace, at Somerset House, looking southeast Photograph: Kevin Meredith
From the great Thameside terrace, visitors can take in points of view close to those captured in two 1750-51 canvases by Canaletto (now in the Royal Collection) towards the City of London (with St Paul’s the main feature 275 years ago) and towards Westminster (when Westminster Abbey still dominated the skyline in Canaletto’s day). Visitors can also now enter the building from the Thames embankment (completed in 1870) and come up by stairs or lift to the courtyard—with cafés and public seating.
From there they can walk through the archway separating the two Courtauld entities, to the east end of the Strand—once choked by traffic but pedestrianised since August 2021— which provides another place of welcome and repose with a mass of permanent free seating around the church of St Mary le Strand. From there, and up one more flight of steps and over one road-crossing, the visitor has travelled unimpeded from the riverbank to Covent Garden and the heart of London’s theatreland.
Another Rothschild brainchild, the Illuminated River project, which was developed in 2000-10 to light up London’s bridges at night, will play a part in the Step Inside 25 Weekend. The bridge’s usual pink and purple colours will be replaced with a display of “Somerset House Blue” to demonstrate the new visual identity of Somerset House. To go with this, there will be a free walking tour that takes place at the “blue hour” that follows sunset.
There will also be plenty of family-friendly interactive fun to be had. From knitting and drawing workshops to a pop-up basketball installation. as well as the return of an immersive disco experience that was big hit in the Cute exhibition last year.
