Somerset House Studios is a new experimental workspace in the centre of London connecting artists, makers and thinkers with audiences. The Studios are a platform for the development of new creative projects and collaboration, promoting work that pushes bold ideas, engages with urgent issues and pioneers new technologies.

Over 100 resident artists will be supported to develop their practice inside the refurbished spaces of the former Inland Revenue building, responding to the changing ways in which artists are working and the acute rent increases in the capital.

Somerset House Studios builds on the success of recent projects such as PJ Harvey: Recording In Progress, Big Bang Data and Björk Digital in redefining the cultural centre as a place where cross-disciplinary work is imagined, made and presented.

1547 Edward Seymour, Lord Protector and Duke of Somerset, starts building a palace for himself on the banks of the Thames

1552 Seymour is executed at the Tower of London; ownership of his palace, nearly complete, passes to the Crown

1553 Aged 20, Princess Elizabeth moves to Somerset House; she lives there until 1558, when she’s crowned Queen Elizabeth I

1665 The Plague sweeps London; Henrietta Maria moves back to France, where she dies in 1669

1666 The Great Fire of London destroys much of the City of London, but stops just short of Denmark House

1685 Charles II dies and his wife, Catherine of Braganza, moves into Denmark House; Sir Christopher Wren oversees yet more construction and renovation work

1693 Catherine of Braganza leaves Denmark House, the last royal to live in the palace

early 1700s Denmark House is used as grace-and-favour apartments, offices, storage and stables

c.1750 Canaletto paints two views from the terrace

1775 After decades of neglect, the original Somerset House is demolished; architect William Chambers immediately starts work on its replacement

1779 The Royal Academy of Arts becomes the first resident of new Somerset House in what’s now known as the North Wing

Nowdays