Key facts
- Architectural style
- Renaissance
- Location
- Strand , London , WC2 , United Kingdom
- Current tenants
- Multiple
- Construction started
- 1776 ; 250 years ago ( 1776 )
- Cost
- £462,323 (1801)
- Landlord
- Somerset House Trust
- Architect
- Sir William Chambers
- Designations
- Grade I listed building
- Public transit access
- Temple
- Official name
- Somerset House and King's College Old Building
- Designated
- 5 February 1970
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- tourist attraction
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Located in
- City of Westminster
- Official website
- www.somersethouse.org.uk
- Image
- Somerset House, Strand.jpg
Show 16 more facts
- historic county
- Middlesex
- capital cost
- 462323
- Commons gallery
- Somerset House
- located on street
- Strand
- postal code
- WC2R 1LA
- occupant
- Royal Society of Literature
- Commons category
- Somerset House
- architectural style
- Neoclassical architecture
- architect
- William Chambers
- visitors per year
- 2841772
- native label
- Somerset House
- street address
- Strand, London WC2R 1LA
- OS grid reference
- TQ3072580870
- social media followers
- 275660
- described by source
- The Nuttall Encyclopædia
- number of viewers/listeners
- 2276443
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~38 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Somerset House is a large neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle is built on the site of a Tudor palace ("Old Somerset House") originally belonging to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. The present Somerset House was designed by Sir William Chambers, begun in 1776, and was further extended with Victorian era outer wings to the east and west in 1831 and 1856 respectively. The site of Somerset House stood directly on the River Thames until the Victoria Embankment was built in the late 1860s.
The great Georgian era structure was built to be a grand public building housing various government and public-benefit society offices. Its present tenants are a mixture of various organisations, generally centred around the arts and education.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Somerset House” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.