quadrangle somerset house 1869 central London River Thames Neoclassical Sir William Chambers
Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It was extended by classical Victorian wings to north and south. A building of the same name was first built on the site more than two centuries earlier. It was a two storey house built around a quadrangle with a gateway rising to three stories and was one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture in England. It is not known who designed the building. Before it was finished however Somerset created too many enemies for himself in the Council. In the struggle for power he was overthrown and in 1552 paid the price on Tower Hill. "Somerset Place" then came into the possession of the Crown and was used by Princess Elizabeth for some years before she was crowned Elizabeth I of England in 1558. For a long time thereafter it served as one of the Royal palaces. Elizabeth I lived there during the reign of her sister Mary I of England and it was used as a residence by the Queens of James I, Charles I, and Charles II. During the reign of James I (also James VI King of Scots), the building became the London residence of his wife Anne of Denmark and was renamed "Denmark House". She commissioned a number of expensive additions and improvements, some to designs by Inigo Jones. This expansion of the building continued during Charles I's reign, including the then highly controversial addition by his wife, Henrietta Maria, of a Roman Catholic chapel (also designed by Jones - who was later to die at Somerset House, in 1652). The process of completion and improvement was slow and costly. As late as 1598 Stow refers to it as "yet unfinished" and the Stuarts employed Inigo Jones in its embellishment. In particular, during the period between 1630 and 1635 he built a Chapel where Henrietta
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Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
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