Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The building, originally the site of a Tudor palace, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776, and further extended with Victorian wings to the east and west. The East Wing forms part of the adjacent King's College London.
Since the middle of the 18th century there had been growing criticism that London had no great public buildings. Government departments and the learned societies were huddled away in small old buildings all over the city. Developing national pride found comparison with the capitals of the Continent disquieting. Edmund Burke was the leading proponent of the scheme for a "national building", and in 1775 Parliament passed an Act for the purpose of, inter alia, "erecting and establishing Publick Offices in Somerset House, and for embanking Parts of the River Thames lying within the bounds of the Manor of Savoy". The list of "Publick Offices" mentioned in the Act comprised "The Salt Office, The Stamp Office, The Tax Office, The Navy Office, The Navy Victualling Office, The Publick Lottery Office, The Hawkers and Pedlar Office, The Hackney Coach Office, The Surveyor General of the Crown Lands Office, The Auditors of the Imprest Office, The Pipe Office, The Office of the Duchy of Lancaster, The Office of the Duchy of Cornwall, The Office of Ordnance, The King's Bargemaster's House, The King's Bargehouses".
Sir William Chambers, Surveyor-General of Works was appointed at a salary of £2,000 p.a. to design and build the new Somerset House. He spent the last two decades of his life, beginning in 1775, in several phases of building at the present Somerset House. Thomas Telford, then a stonemason, but later an eminent civil engineer, was among those who worked on its construction. One of Chambers's most famous pupils, Thomas Hardwick Jr, helped build parts of the building during his period of training and later wrote a short biography of Chambers. By 1780 the North Wing, fronting the Strand, was complete. Its design was based on Inigo Jones's drawings for the riverfront of the former building.
It is not certain at what pace the rest of the construction progressed, but it is clear that the outbreak of war with France caused delays through lack of money. Chambers died in 1796; most of the building was completed after Chambers' death by James Wyatt. However we know that building work was still going on in 1801; and there are indications that as late as 1819 some decorative work still needed to be completed. This original building (which did not yet include the "New Wing" and King's College London, situated behind the West and East Wings of the quadrangle respectively) probably cost about £500,000.
At that time of construction, the river was not embanked and the Thames lapped the South Wing where three great arches allowed boats and barges to penetrate to landing places within the building.
Magnificent as the new building was, it was something short of what Chambers had intended, for he had planned for additional wings to the east and west of the quadrangle. Cost had been the inhibiting factor. Eventually King's College London was erected to the east (the Government granting the land on condition that the design conformed to Chambers' original design) by subscription between 1829 and 1834. Then, increasing demand for space led to another and last step. The western edge of the site was occupied by a row of houses used as dwellings for Admiralty officials who worked in the South Wing. Between 1851 and 1856 these were demolished and a further wing erected. 150 years later this part of the building is still known as the "New Wing". Somerset House now presents more of the aspect of a terrace than Chambers would have intended.
The building housed various learned societies, including the Royal Academy, which Chambers was instrumental in founding, and the Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries (the RA had been among the last tenants of the previous building). The University of London also had accommodation there and the learned Societies retained a presence in the building until the 1870s.
Somerset House had its share of trials and tribulations during World War II. Apart from comparatively minor blast effects at various times, sixteen rooms and the handsome rotunda staircase (the Nelson Stair) were completely destroyed in the South Wing, and a further 27 damaged in the West Wing by a direct hit in October 1940. Still more windows were shattered and balustrades toppled, but the worst was over by the end of May 1941.
It was not until the 1950s that this damage to the South Wing was repaired. The work required skilled masons, whose services were hard to come by in the early post-war years. Sir Albert Richardson was appointed architect for the reconstruction. He skillfully recreated the Nelson Room and rebuilt the Nelson Stair. The work was completed in 1952 at a cost of (then) £84,000. The newly restored part of the South Wing was taken by the Inland Revenue's Solicitor's Office and "Establishments" (now commonly "HR") Division, augmenting their existing accommodation in the West Wing.
Government offices and college. The New Public Offices 1776-96 by Sir William Chambers; sculpture by Carlini, Bacon, Cezacchi, Banks, Nollekens, Silton;and Coade stone urns; the east extension for King's College 1829-35 by Sir Robert Smirke and the west extension of offices to Lancaster Place by Sir James Pennethorne, 1853-56.
Portland stone to all main elevations, stock brick for rear to subsidiary courts, slate and leaded roofs. Chambers' dignified neo-classical interpretation of established Palladianism, but with some markedly Parisian neo-classical details, rising to features of Piranesian originality in the river front but not entirely resolved as design,viz the scale of the dome - all executed in the finest masonry and with excellent examples of late C18 sculpture. Smirke and, more remarkably for the date, Pennethorne, laudably followed the precedent set by Chambers.
The Strand block with carriage archway leads into grand quadrangle of buildings with subsidiary courts and the later flanking ranges of the east and west extensions; the great river front is raised on a mighty basement/terrace, originally opening directly on to the Thames with water-gates. 3 main storeys throughout on 2½ storeys of basements. The Strand block has a 9-window wide entrance front. Rusticated arcaded ground floor, the central 3 bays open as carriage arches into finely detailed triple vaulted,columned vestibule and on into the quad. Piano nobile with pilastered and pedimented windows with square architraved windows to half storey 2nd floor, articulated by giant order of Corinthian columns; full entablature with balustraded parapets flanking 3 bay central attic with wreathed oculi with statues on vertical accents and crowning sculptural group. Quadrangle side similar but able to be fully developed across width of site behind Strand with projecting, 3-bay, giant order dressed wings and plainer subsidiary wings. The quadrangle building on the south, east and west sides is completely rusticated (with greater emphasis to ground floor) with giant order centre-piece pavilions, that to the south with modest pedimented attic and dome, the other 2 with small cupolas; arcaded ground floor fenestration; pediments to piano nobile windows of pavilions.
Rusticated gateways link north ends of side ranges with Strand side range and give access to subsidiary courts and Smirke's King's College range to east (25 bays wide with central and end pavilions with giant orders of columns and pilasters respectively) and on the west to Pennethorne's extension; the latter has a 13-bay front to Lancaster Place flanked by 4-bay projecting wings and admirably reworks Chambers' design for the quadrangle elevation of the Strand block. To the river front the whole vast complex presents one great facade of which Chambers' original work forms the major portion, a monumental palace elevation 45 bays wide with central 5-bay giant order pavilion, surmounted weakly by the pediment-attic-dome, and, the most original feature, the giant ordered, pedimented colonnade screens set on giant semicircular archways, providing the 2 major flank accents linking the wings.
The massive arcaded basement/terrace has central semicircular water arch and water gates flanked by pairs of giant rusticated Tuscan columns.
A number of Chambers' very fine interiors survive, of particular note the former rooms of the Royal Acadamy and the Learned Societies with their staircases; the Navy staircase with its flying span in the west end of the south block; chimney pieces, doorcases etc. Smirke's King's College retains classical entrance hall and staircase either side; low great hall with chapel above remodelled 1861-72 by Sir George Gilbert Scott in Normano-Byzantine style with painted and mosaic decoration, arcaded semi-domed altar apse, etc.