The Royal Shakespeare Company is to return to the Roundhouse, five years after it performed a disastrous season at the venue.

The eight plays of Shakespeare's History Cycle will be presented at the revamped Camden theatre in spring next year.

They are part of the most significant run of work to be produced by the RSC in London under its current head, Michael Boyd.

Between November and May next year, the company will present three new plays as well as productions of King Lear and Chekhov's The Seagull, both starring Ian McKellen, in the Soho, Tricycle and New London Theatres.

The RSC has not had a permanent base in the capital since its last artistic director, Adrian Noble, took the company out of the Barbican. His use of alternative spaces such as the Roundhouse in 2002 was not a success.

But Boyd said: "It was a funny old time the last time the RSC was at the Roundhouse.

"The company wasn't necessarily in the same healthy state as it is now and neither was the Roundhouse as physically lovely as it is now."

The venue was ideal for the Histories project, he added.

Designer Tom Pipe will recreate the company's Courtyard Theatre - its temporary theatre in Stratford during redevelopment - for the run.

It is thought this might be the first time the RSC has presented a complete History Cycle, which includes all the Henries, Richard II and Richard III, in London.

Days Of Significance by Roy Williams, a play set in an English market town and the deserts of Iraq, is being updated for a run at the Tricycle.

The venue will also host the premiere of I'll Be The Devil by Leo Butler, inspired by The Tempest. The playwas commissioned for the RSC's recent Complete Works Festival but was not finished in time.

Anthony Neilson, author of The Wonderful World Of Dissocia, which was seen recently at the Royal Court, is also working on a new play in conjunction with the cast of the RSC's Macbeth. The unnamed work will be seen at the Soho Theatre from November.

Boyd said the RSC was in "rude health" and added: "The Complete Works Festival has left the company with a valuable legacy which continues, with more Shakespeare and new work being transferred to a range of venues in the capital."

Last year's RSC transfer from Stratford to the Novello Theatre was the most lucrative for straight theatre at the venue in its history.