X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Somerset House


Brook Taylor

Taylor's fragile health gave way; he fell into a decline, and died aged 46, on 30 November 1731 at Somerset House, London.

Frank Verity

In 1915, he was the architect of a block of flats on the site of the former Somerset House on Park Lane, the first such building in that important street.

Max Penson

In 2006 Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich sponsored an exhibition of Penson's photographs of Uzbekistan in agreement with the Moscow House of Photography on 29 November 2006 at the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House in London.

Pell Office

In 1822 they were transferred to attic storage in Somerset House and were "heaped in some places up to the ceiling and in an exceedingly dirty state".

Turin Brakes

In the Summer of 2004, the band played a successful set at Somerset House, playing a selection of old and new material, including future singles Fishing For A Dream and Over And Over.


Charles Heath Wilson

When William Dyce, director and secretary of the recently established schools of art at Somerset House, resigned in 1843, Wilson, who had been director of the Edinburgh school, was appointed his successor.

Christian Schoeler

In 2009 Schoeler collaborated with Louis Vuitton’s Paul Helbers, designing a suit made entirely out of painted canvas for Esquire (UK Edition)’s Singular Suit Project, which was then exhibited at Somerset House in London.

Edward Rooker

Among Rooker's early works are a view on the Thames from Somerset House (1750), and a view of Vauxhall Gardens (1751), both after Canaletto; a view of the Parthenon for Dalton's 'Views of Sicily and Greece' (1751), and a section of St. Paul's Cathedral, decorated according to the

Jean Ker, Countess of Roxburghe

Instead she became the second wife of Robert Ker, 1st Lord Roxburghe (later created Earl of Roxburghe), on 3 February 1614; the wedding was celebrated at Somerset House and attended by the king and queen.

Mikhail Piotrovsky

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Piotrovsky advocated the opening of the Hermitage collections to the wider world, which resulted in the establishment of the Hermitage Rooms in Somerset House, Hermitage Amsterdam and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum.


see also

Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset

After his first wife's death in 1827 he married, secondly, Margaret Shaw-Stewart (d. Somerset House, Park Lane, London, 18 July 1880), daughter of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, of Blackhall, Renfrewshire, 5th Baronet, and his wife Catherine Maxwell, daughter of Sir William Maxwell, 3rd Baronet, in Marylebone, Portland Place, London, on 28 July 1836.

Mark Hallett

'The Business of Criticism: the Press and the Royal Academy Exhibition in Eighteenth-Century London' in David Solkin (ed.) Art on the line: the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836, Yale University Press, 2001.

Richard Brinsley Knowles

Knowles, son of James Sheridan Knowles, a dramatist, was born at Glasgow and about 1838 held an appointment in the registrar-general's office, Somerset House, London.