London - The Strand Embankment and Somerset House Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - The Strand Embankment and Somerset House

Emerge from Charing Cross train or tube station and you’ll find yourself on the Strand. Apart from its width, first impressions reveal little of this vital thoroughfare’s glory days in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was every fashionable Londoner’s favourite riverside prom. To the southeast, the Victoria Embankment between Westminster and Blackfriars bridges put paid to that. An amazing feat of engineering led by Sir Joseph Bazalgette in the late 1860s, it was quickly graced with the ancient Egyptian obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle and the road along its length soon became the most popular route between the City and Westminster. Today the riverbank is lined with noble plane trees and the imposing river frontage of Somerset House, but its sunny south-facing views are spoiled by the continual roar of traffic. The new Golden Jubilee footbridges from Embankment tube to the South Bank either side of the Hungerford railbridge now provide superb views up and downriver to the north and south.

Sights

Embankment.

Cleopatra’s Needle is easily the oldest thing around here, and just about the oldest monument in London exposed to the weather. The pink granite obelisk is one of a pair that once stood in Heliopolis around 1500 BC, long before the Egyptian queen with the famous nose, although the inscriptions on the stone apparently refer to her. It was given to George IV by the viceroy of Egypt in 1820 and only made it to the banks of the Thames over 50 years later. Nearby, the Victoria Embankment Gardens, are a pleasant place to escape the fumes and take in some lunchtime or evening open-air entertainment in the summer (Alternative Arts, T 020-7375 0441, http://www.alternativearts.co.uk for details). Other sights in the gardens include the 17th-century York Water Gate, its foot now lapped not by the river but by an ornamental pond, and at 5 Buckingham Street the Proud Galleries, T 020-7839 4942, a lively media-driven exhibition space for contemporary art and photography.

Courtauld Institute and Gallery: T 020-7848 2526, http://www.courtauld. ac.uk. Gilbert Collection: T 020-7420 9400, http://www.gilbert-collection. org.uk. Hermitage Rooms: T 020-7845 4630, http://www.hermitage rooms.com. Daily 1000-1800 (last entry 1715). Courtauld Institute and Gilbert Collection: adult £5, under 18s free, concessions £4/2. Hermitage Rooms: adult £6, concession £4, under-16s free. Joint ticket (2 out of 3) £8; concession £7. Or all 3 £12, concession £11. Free on Mon 1000-1400 except bank holidays. M Temple.

Further east along the Strand, on the right, stands Somerset House, one of the most important 18th-century buildings in Europe. It was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776 for George III’s Naval office, with the wings on the Strand purpose- built for the fledgling Royal Academy of Arts (which was founded here in 1768 but moved to Piccadilly in 1837), the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. Appropriately enough, since 1990, this northern wing has been occupied by the Courtauld Institute and Gallery. Ascending the wonderful winding stairway, apparently designed to inspire the terror that the time considered necessary to the appreciation of the Sublime, the 11 rooms afford a delightful potted introduction to Western art; from early Dutch through the Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe, via Rubens, to the baroque, 18th-century British portraiture and the post-Impressionists.

In 2000 the southern buildings were opened up to display Arthur Gilbert’s collection in what is London’s latest museum of decorative art, providing access for the first time to the river frontage. Described as the single most generous gift ever made to the nation, the Gilbert Collection includes gold and silverware, precious snuff boxes and some peculiar Roman micromosaics among other treasures. Beautifully presented in darkened rooms, the effect can be quite overwhelming, partly because Gilbert seems to have been more interested in the pecuniary than the aesthetic value of his hoard.

The most recent addition to the exotic collections at Somerset House are the contents of the Hermitage Rooms, designed to exhibit changing selections of artefacts from the great St Petersburg museum. The five rooms have been decorated in the Imperial style of the Winter Palace, with replica chandeliers, gilded chairs and marquetry floors and include, amongst changing exhibitions, a live feed to St Petersburg, looking across Palace Square, and a six-minute video taking you on a tour of the Hermitage itself.

The great central courtyard of Somerset House has been rechristened the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court and blessed with a diverting but controversial computer-operated fountain. The fountains operate from 1000-2300, with short displays on the hour and half hour, and main displays at 1300, 1800, and 2200.

Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - The Strand Embankment and Somerset House
		Flights Cheap flights to any destination worldwide click here		Car Rental Compare prices for worldwide car rental click here		Hotels Lowest prices on over 60,000 hotels worldwide click here		Travel Insurance Compare Travel Insurance prices click here