Built for the University of London, it has been used by various institutions in the course of its history, including the Civil Service Commission, the British Museum and, currently, the Royal Academy of Arts.

Between 1970 and 1997, the building, as the Museum of Mankind, hosted around 75 exhibitions, including many famous ones such as Nomad and City, 1976, and Living Arctic, 1987.

[5] In 2006 Colin St John Wilson drew up a masterplan for the whole complex, which included a more modest link between the buildings than that proposed by Hopkins.

However, Wilson died the following year, which led to another competition being held in 2008, won by David Chipperfield Architects.

[6] This included a sculpture court in the bridge between the buildings, a lecture hall where that of the University of London originally stood[4] and a permanent home for Giampietrino’s full-size copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.