by Keily Oakes BBC News Online entertainment staff

Damien Hirst's shark maintains a deadly presence

The Saatchi Gallery in London is one of the most ambitious art spaces to have opened in recent years.

The Young British Artists movement is one that often provokes the cry "but that isn't art".

And now much of the most iconic work from the contemporary artists is to go on permanent display at the Saatchi Gallery on the South Bank - which opens to the public on Thursday - giving everyone a chance to add to the debate.

The gallery is housed in the magnificent County Hall, opened in 1922 as the seat of local government power for the capital.

Its Edwardian setting should be at odds with the strictly modern works of art but they sit comfortably together - with neither taking away from the other.

It also adds to the contrast between the serious, thought-demanding works and the lighter, fun side of the movement.

The Saatchi gallery launches with a retrospective of Damien Hirst - one of the leading lights of the YBA and an artist that divides art lovers between those that love or loathe him.

Among the most famous works from Saatchi's private collection on show is Tracey Emin's My Bed - her scruffy unmade crib that was nominated for the Turner Prize.

The piece sparked the beginning of the YBA debate with many dismissing it as a flash in the pan.

360° GALLERY TOUR Take a look inside the Saatchi Gallery.

But Emin is still going strong and her work will no doubt go on to become a part of art history and be debated for years to come.

My Bed, and one of her many tapestries, adorn the central chamber, a grand room with a beautiful architectural ceiling.

There are so many pieces of eye-catching art in this room that at first glance it seems overwhelming.

No protection

Damien Hirst's Hymn, a 20ft high anatomical model, is housed alongside Ron Mueck's startling Mask and Marcus Harvey's still-shocking portrait of Myra Hindley.

But once over the enormity of some of the works then it is easy to see how many of them caught the eye of the philanthropist Saatchi.

Mueck's Dead Dad, a metre-long naked human figure, is striking to walk round and investigate.

There are no glass cases protecting the works which is a risk considering both Emin's My Bed and Harvey's Myra have been vandalised in the past.

Such is Dead Dad's human likeness that it becomes a strange thing to look at - almost too voyeuristic to make it comfortable viewing.

Also housed in the same room is Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 17ft tiger shark in formaldehyde.

Damien Hirst's spotty Mini is coming down the palatial stairs as in the Italian Job

It is just one of Hirst's pickled animals on display - there are cows, sheep and a pig.

There is also a severed cow's head which is the centrepiece of what is basically a fly farm.

One Thousand Years is not for the squeamish as maggots crawl over the head before transforming into flies (yes, real flies) and then frying on the ultra-violet insect killer.

His Love Lost work, living tropical fish in a tank filled with office furniture, is a lot easier on the eye and the stomach.

Disconcerting

As well as the central room there is the chance to strut the former corridors of power with their marble columns and wood-panelled walls, and explore offices-cum-art spaces.

One of the most remarkable of these is Richard Wilson's creation of a room half-filled with sump oil.

Marcus Harvey's Myra provoked shock and anger when it was unveiled

Only one person can walk into the centre of the room on a iron walkway - armed with a warning not to touch anything - where there is a disconcerting effect of not being aware of the dimensions around you as a perfect mirror-image of the ceiling is reflected on the oil.

Other hidden rooms and corridors are filled with established YBA names including Chris Ofili, Sarah Lucas and Jake and Dinos Chapman.

This is a gallery that has such a diverse collection of art that there will be something that perhaps inspires, horrifies, demands thought or changes opinions about contemporary art.