View of Somerset House from Waterloo Bridge, City of Westminster. A major thoroughfare, the Strand runs east to west from Trafalgar Square to Temple Bar. Named from the Old English 'strond', meaning the edge of a river, as before modern embankments and land reclamation it ran alongside the north bank of the River Thames. Between The Strand and the river, many historically important mansions were built from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. The first palace on this site was built by Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset in 1547, but after his execution in 1552 the property passed to the crown. In 1609 Inigo Jones was invited by James I's queen, Anne of Denmark, to redesign and renovate the palace and it was renamed Denmark House. This was used in the eighteenth century as grace and favour apartments and was eventually demolished in 1775. The new building was constructed between 1776-96 by Sir William Chambers. The Royal Academy of Arts became the first resident in 1779, and other occupants have included the Admiralty and the Inland Revenue where it was based for 150 years. Kings College University occupies the east wing. The building suffered bomb damage during World War II and in 1950, Sir Alfred Richardson undertook renovation work. The Courtauld Institute of Art moved into the North Wing in 1989 and remains there still. Prior to the building of the Victoria Embankment in 1870 as part of Joseph Bazalgette's sewage works, this frontage would have opened directly on to the Thames. The huge, arcaded basement terrace has a central semi-circular water arch and water gates, where boats could enter to landing places within the building. The whole vast complex presents one facade of which Chambers' original work forms the major portion, a monumental palace elevation 45 bays wide (150 metres long) with a central five-bay giant order pavilion, surmounted by the pediment-attic-dome, and the pedimented colonnade screens set on giant semi-circular archways. In the twenty-first century the main terrace overlooking the Thames was refurbished and opened to the public, these alterations being overseen by the conservation architects Donald Insall and Associates. Somerset House is Grade I listed, number 1237041. A lorry is parked on Victoria Embankment.
