Somerset House

Somerset House is a neoclassical building, which currently houses cultural and artistic institutions and one of the faculties of the University of London. There is an exhibition of about 500 paintings, 7,000 drawings, as well as sculptures, furniture and ceramics. Various cultural events, film screenings and concerts are regularly organized in the Somerset House courtyard, and a public ice rink operates here in winter.

The first estate called Somerset House was built in this place during the Tudor times, but it was finally demolished in 1775. Around the same time, critics began to appear that London lacked a suitably prestigious building for official offices. Until now, they were scattered throughout the city and housed in old, usually decaying buildings. On the initiative of Edmund Burke, a new Somerset House was created, which for the next two hundred years served as the seat of, among others tax, maritime, tax and scientific services.