The Somerset House

By
Shea Flannery

“The Somerset House, which was built in the time of Edward VI., in the low Italian fashion then in vogue.” It’s courtyard is surrounded by arcades. And at the back there is a big garden stretching down to the river.” This courtyard was 300 ft (91 m) by 200 ft (61 m), flanked by a pair of terraces, the whole presenting a unified frontage to the river, 500 feet (150 m) wide. Around the courtyard, each block consisted of six storeys: cellar, basement, ground, principal, attic and garret. During 1725, when Saussure was walking the streets of London, the Somerset House was occupied by the Queen Dowager, and its presented with a mounted guard before it, as before all the royal palaces.

The North Wing, fronting the Strand, was the first part of the complex to be built. Construction of the riverside wing followed; it was finished in 1786. At the time of construction, the Thames was not embanked and the river lapped the South Wing, where a great arch allowed boats and barges to penetrate to landing places within the building. Meanwhile, work continued on the East and West Wings, which began to be occupied from 1788; by 1790 the main quadrangle was complete. The Somerset House was filled with sculptures and other visual embellishments. Inside, most of the offices were plain and business-like, but in the North Wing there were formal rooms and public spaces.

Bibliography

De Saussure, Cesar (1902). A foreign view of England in the reigns of George I and George II. London: J. Murray.

The Courtyard of Somerset House, from the North Wing Entrance

Media Credit

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