Somerset House

The Somerset House standing on the Strand today is not the Tudor palace many visitors assume it to be. That earlier building was demolished in the 1770s and replaced with William Chambers's neoclassical design, begun in 1776 to house government offices rather than royalty — among them the Navy Board, whose administrators once planned and dispatched entire fleets from rooms inside this very building.

For most of its history, Somerset House functioned as a working bureaucratic complex rather than a public destination. Its vast central courtyard began life as a naval store yard and later served as a car park for civil servants, while the building itself spent a long 20th-century stretch housing the Royal Academy of Arts before that institution moved to Burlington House. Only in recent decades has Somerset House reopened itself fully to the public as a lively arts and culture centre.

The courtyard that once stored naval supplies now leads a double life by season. In summer, 55 choreographed fountain jets rise and fall across the paving in timed sequences, drawing children who dart between them on hot afternoons; when winter arrives, the same courtyard is cleared and flooded to become a floodlit ice rink, framed by the grand neoclassical facades on every side.

Tucked within the building, the Courtauld Gallery holds a collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings that punches well above its size, running from Manet to Van Gogh and including some of the most reproduced images in Western art — a reminder that Somerset House rewards a look inside its rooms as much as a stroll across its courtyard.

Entry to the courtyard itself is free and open to all, making it an easy stop to fold into a walk along the Strand or the South Bank. The galleries and temporary exhibitions inside, including the Courtauld, are ticketed separately, so budget for an entrance fee if a particular show catches your eye.

The winter ice rink requires its own separate ticket and is genuinely popular, especially at weekends and around the school holidays, so booking a session in advance is worth doing rather than hoping to walk up and skate on the spot.