A former royal palace turned tax offices, 25 years ago Somerset House was used only for government administration and royal societies, before setting its sights on becoming a thriving hub for creative innovators.
Now standing proud as one of London's true cultural gems – housing artists, makers and upcoming talent – Somerset House celebrates its 25th anniversary as the creative powerhouse we know and love today. (So loved it’s moved up to the eighth most visited places in London in its anniversary year!)
To mark this milestone, a spectacular lineup of events has been curated in and around the 18th-century building for cultural enthusiasts and art fans alike.
So we can catch the best of the anniversary year, we asked Dr Cliff Lauson, Director of Exhibitions at Somerset House, to highlight the standout exhibitions and events during this year-long, celebratory programme.
“In this 25th year we tried to put together an artistic programme that shows off strength and all the different ways we work and think. There’s lots of examples of cross-disciplinary programming whether it’s a theme through Soil [The World at Our Feet] or an artist who’s a polymath like Wayne McGregor, to the talent we have in house.
“There’s really a feeling of “it’s the best of Somerset House all squeezed into this year”, so there’s lots for people to come and do no matter what they’re interested in.”
A programme of firsts
With an events calendar brimming with artistic innovation, Somerset House have also announced a number of “firsts” as part of a special year of programming.
This comes in the form of a free, open-to-all invitation for the public to explore and get to know the entire building. Taking place on the 25th birthday weekend (13 and 14 September) Step Inside 25 opens the building’s doors to the public like never before.
“It’s about stepping inside Somerset House,” Cliff explains, “[where] the public will be able to come in and appreciate it as a heritage building. [We’ll] throw the doors open – come and explore.”
The diverse programme will feature a range of activities from exhibition viewings, film screenings and workshops to performances, tours and family activities. And the open invitation means guests will be able to discover some of the building’s lesser-known spaces, including the Deadhouse and Maker Street where you can meet Somerset House’s resident creatives.
Visitors can also enjoy a brand-new riverside bar, Setlist, which joins the existing onsite culinary offerings when it launches in April.
Unpacking UK’s colonial ties with India
Extending inside Somerset House, another of the programme’s firsts includes the opening of the newly restored Salt Stair, inviting guests to revisit the entangled histories of salt in a site-specific setting.
Open to the public for the first time, the once five-storey spine of the Salt Office now displays specially commissioned works for Salt Cosmologies – a multi-dimensional exhibition telling the story of Britain’s imperial salt monopoly in India.
This project by multi-media performance duo Hylozoic/Desires has particular significance to Somerset House, as the former government administration building, used for tax offices in the late 1700s, included a dedicated salt office.
At the heart of the exhibition is an 80-metre long fabric installation recreating the Inland Customs Line – a vast colonial barrier of plants that stretched 2,500 miles across India to control salt taxation.
With the spectacular replica stretching across Somerset House’s courtyard, Cliff tells us that the idea was to create a textile border wall where the fabric, handprinted in Bangalore, features beautiful patterns on both sides – with one side replicating an official salt stamp and the other showing plants that would have comprised the hedge.
“It’s a very beautifully crafted piece that flows in the wind. It’s serene but in that beautiful flowingness sits a contemporary readdress of a history which was actually a bit more violent than that. It was quite harmful to the local population in terms of radically changing the price of salt as well as extracting lots of money,” he explains.
“When the artists were explaining this project to me, it was really compelling because they were in a way piecing together bits of research that they had done in the India office archives and the British Library.”
This was particularly challenging for artists Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser as there was a lack of visual evidence from the original hedge. However, documentation of the customs line meant intricate details could be incorporated, such as using plants and insects that were described to be in the original hedge within the printing process.
An exhibition of three parts
The project is split into three sections, designed to be observed as a whole – the Courtyard, Terrace Rooms and Salt Stair.
“A visitor will come into the courtyard, see the fantastic textile installation and head on in to the South Wing. There’s a gallery room that unpacks the story in more detail and continues on into the newly refurbished Salt Stair,” says Cliff.
Archival materials are showcased throughout, including colonial-era salt receipts, photographs from Gandhi’s iconic 1930 salt march and botanical specimens from Kew Gardens – highlighting the ecological and human cost of colonial extraction.
The newly restored Salt Stair displays speculative salt-printed imagery of the hedge using AI and Victorian printing techniques, alongside photography of Sambhar Lake, a British salt outpost. Continuing down the stairs, visitors have the chance to view The Phantom Line, a video work that documents the artists in their journey of tracing the ghostly remnants of the Inland Customs Line today.
A standout year of exhibitions
Running alongside Salt Cosmologies is another groundbreaking exhibition – SOIL: The World At Our Feet (until 13 April) celebrates the wonder of soil through artefacts, installations and newly commissioned artworks. Later in the year, Virtual Beauty is set to take over the exhibition run to explore the impact of digital technologies on the ideas of beauty.
Asking Cliff what we should look out for in the 2025 exhibition programme, he highlights Sir Wayne McGregor’s Infinite Bodies showcase – the first exhibition delving into the career of the acclaimed choreographer.
“In the autumn to winter season we’ve got a really fantastic exhibition working with Wayne McGregor. This is a large feature exhibition to close the 2025 year [where Wayne] will be working with us to create an exhibition that will be all about the body, movement and digital technologies.
“A lot of people will be really interested to see [this], either because they love his work or because the work he’s made with all these collaborators is about technology and body and there’s lots of immersive and participatory elements. I think it’ll be a pretty great experience for people even if they don’t know his work.”
Mark your calendars with Somerset House’s showstopping anniversary events
Already promising to be a spectacular year of programming with a host of groundbreaking exhibitions, keep an eye out for the special anniversary events on top of Somerset House’s usual favourites, like the London Design Biennale, Summer Series and annual ice rink.
- SOIL: The World at Our Feet – until 13 April
- Salt Cosmologies – until 27 April
- Photo London – 15 to 18 May
- London Design Biennale – 5 to 29 June
- Summer Series with America Express and Akinola Davies JR – 10 to 20 July
- Virtual Beauty – 23 July to 28 September
- The Spell or The Dream by Tai Shani – 8 August to 14 September
- Step Inside 25 birthday weekend – 13 to 14 September
- Wayne McGregor: Infinite Bodies – 24 October to 22 February 2026
- Skate at Somerset House – 12 November to 11 January 2026
Don’t miss your chance to experience Somerset House’s world-class exhibitions and events during their spectacular 25th anniversary programme.