101-482: Holloway Sanatorium was an institution for the treatment of those suffering temporary mental illness, situated on 22 acres (9 ha) of aesthetically landscaped grounds near Virginia Water in Surrey , England, about 22 miles (35 km) south-west of Charing Cross . Its largest buildings, including one listed at Grade I , have been restored and supplemented as Virginia Park , a gated residential community featuring
202-404: A Roman bath. The refurbished palace was the setting for elaborate entertainments at the wedding of Anne's lady in waiting Jean Drummond on 3 February 1614, including a masque Hymen's Triumph written by Samuel Daniel . On 22 May 1614, Christian IV of Denmark paid a surprise visit to his sister. In 1619, King James granted the palace to Prince Charles . Frances Coke, Viscountess Purbeck
303-535: A chapel where Henrietta Maria of France , the wife of King Charles I , could exercise her Roman Catholic religion . This was in the care of the Capuchin Order and was on a site to the southwest of the Great Court. A small cemetery was attached and some of the tombstones are still to be seen built into one of the walls of a passage under the present quadrangle. Royal occupation of Somerset House
404-523: A direct hit in October 1940. Still more windows were shattered and balustrades toppled, but the worst was over by the end of May 1941. It was not until the 1950s that this damage to the South Wing was repaired. The work required skilled masons, whose services were hard to come by in the early post-war years. Sir Albert Richardson was appointed architect for the reconstruction. He skillfully recreated
505-648: A few years earlier as a potential site for new public offices) was sold and the proceeds applied to the Somerset House project. Initially a certain William Robinson, Secretary to the Board of Works , was commissioned to design and build the new Somerset House, but he died in 1775 shortly after being appointed. So Sir William Chambers , Comptroller of the King's Works , (who had in any case been vying for
606-409: A fortune from the sale of his patent medicines , pills and ointments, designed to cure all ills. Looking for ways in which to spend his fortune, Holloway turned to philanthropy, and became a champion of progressive mental health care. George III 's madness had excited public opinion about the correct and humane treatment for the insane. Therefore, on 19 April 1861 Holloway attended a public meeting at
707-463: A gated and walled community of 190 houses and apartments. The former chapel building is separately listed as a Grade II* building. The main building was used in some early episodes of Inspector Morse , including the very first episode, The Dead of Jericho . Inspector Morse is seen on the main staircase, and the Dining Hall is used in the opening scenes. The facility featured in music videos in
808-812: A headquarters building was constructed in the West Court (between the West Wing and the New Wing) for the Civil Service Rifles , a Rifle Volunteer Corps . By the start of the First World War the Civil Service Rifles, by then renamed the 15th (Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles) Battalion, The London Regiment , had its own Morris tube firing range (where the calibre of the rifle is reduced for indoor operation by
909-464: A plan by Octagon to salvage the Grade I building (at the highest category in architecture) was accepted. Octagon spent six years in a punctilious art restoration and conversion project. Craftspeople in various disciplines returned the buildings to very near to the original. The Grand Hall was restored and the main building converted into 23 three- and four-storey town houses. The site became Virginia Park ,
1010-556: A report for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. A site was chosen, north of the nascent Virginia Water village, directly west of a drop to the Thames plain below on St. Ann’s Heath, part of Holloway's land. Holloway ensured upper parts of the building were visible from a railway and a local road, the main route from Virginia Water railway station (in cutting ) and Stroude Road behind high quality brick walls. Work on
1111-427: A residence for visiting overseas dignitaries and as a barracks for troops. Suffering from neglect, Old Somerset House began to be demolished in 1775. Since the middle of the 18th century there had been growing criticism that London had no great public buildings. Government departments and the learned societies were huddled away in small old buildings all over the city. Developing national pride found comparison with
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#17327914661981212-530: A secretary or other official. Large vaults for storing public documents were provided, extending under the entire northern section of the courtyard. The North Wing, fronting the Strand , was the first part of the complex to be built; its design was based on Inigo Jones 's drawings for the riverfront of the former palace. By 1780 the North Wing was finished and occupied, and Chambers reported to Parliament that
1313-651: A single building and in a single benefaction. In 1872 that Holloway met with the Commissioners in Lunacy , who entered warmly into his plans and promised every assistance to produce a model building. He expressed some quite fixed feelings about architecture but was no expert and was assisted by Professor T. L. Donaldson and T. H. Wyatt (who were architects for the Commissioners in Lunacy). Donaldson (1795–1885)
1414-486: A spa complex, gymnasium, multi-purpose sports hall and an all-weather tennis court. Construction was conceived by the wealthy philanthropist Thomas Holloway , which entailed an elaborate Franco-Gothic style by W. H. Crossland , and took place between 1873 and 1885. The imposing exteriors and interiors have a sister building, the Royal Holloway College about a mile north; Sir Nikolaus Pevsner regarded
1515-441: A third adviser, George Godwin , editor of The Builder . Holloway's initial idea was that the design of the building should be purely Italian, modelled on the river frontage of Somerset House . However, by October 1871 he had had a change of heart and wrote to Donaldson: “You will see that I have gone into the grand old Flemish style. I know that your taste is classical and which I greatly admire, but perhaps all things considered
1616-589: A use of a tube) fitted with vanishing and running targets at Somerset House. Somerset House had its share of trials and tribulations during the London blitz in the Second World War . Apart from comparatively minor blast effects at various times, sixteen rooms and the handsome rotunda staircase (the Nelson Stair) were completely destroyed in the South Wing, and a further 27 damaged in the West Wing by
1717-561: Is a large building complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London , overlooking the River Thames , just east of Waterloo Bridge . The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("Old Somerset House") originally belonging to the Duke of Somerset in 1547. The present Somerset House was designed by Sir William Chambers , begun in 1776, and was further extended with Victorian era outer wings to
1818-414: Is possessed of nearly a quarter of a million" and wished to see him with a view to disposing of that sum "for charitable uses". The meeting took place on 25 May 1864 at which Holloway resolved to spend some of his fortune on the establishment of a sanatorium for the mentally sick of the middle classes "the professional breadwinner whose income ceases when he is unable to work". Pauper asylums gave refuge for
1919-695: The Comptroller of the Navy , the Secretary to the Board and three Commissioners of the Navy , along with the chairman, Secretary and two Commissioners of Victualling , with the Treasurer of the Navy allotted the 'mansion' at the river end of the terrace (which included a coach house and stables for ten horses in the vaults under the terrace). As well as providing office space and accommodation, Somerset House
2020-713: The Duchy of Cornwall Office Act 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c. 93), was passed, noting that the Duchy's rooms in Somerset House were now needed "for the use of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, whose present office is insufficient for the Business thereof, and adjoins the said Office of the Duchy of Cornwall". The act provided for the Duchy Office to move to new, purpose-built premises in Pimlico : now known as 10 Buckingham Gate ,
2121-518: The London Freemasons’ Hall in which Lord Shaftesbury , sincerely concerned with mental health, made a magnificent speech, calling for funds for the foundation of an asylum for the middle-class insane. Lord Shaftesbury appealed for £5,000 and received immediately contributions totaling £760, though none from Holloway. Holloway was impressed, and Shaftesbury received a letter from Holloway’s solicitor three years later announcing "a gentleman who
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#17327914661982222-784: The Napoleonic Wars ; though repealed in 1816, it was reintroduced in peacetime (in 1842) and has been collected ever since. The Inland Revenue was created by a merger of the Stamp and Taxes Office and the Excise Office in 1849; in 1854 the Excise Office staff were moved from their old headquarters in the City of London into the newly built New Wing. Somerset House continued in use by the Inland Revenue throughout
2323-811: The Pipe Office , the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer 's Office and the Office of the Clerk of the Estreats ). As early as 1795 the Exchequer was requesting that more space be made available; Sir John Soane was engaged to redesign their offices, and as part of the scheme the Duchy was relocated to another part of the East Wing, prompting complaints from its officers. Pipe rolls and other ancient records of
2424-728: The Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries . The Royal Academy took up residence first, in 1779, followed by the other two institutions the following year. The Royal Academy occupied the western half of the wing and the Royal Society the eastern half; their main entrances faced each other across the central vestibule leading from the Strand to the courtyard, topped by busts (of Michelangelo and Isaac Newton respectively) which are still in place today. The Society of Antiquaries
2525-487: The required duty had been paid. For example, up until 1855 (when the relevant duty was abolished) every newspaper produced in the country had to be brought to Somerset House to be stamped. The Tax Office administered and collected various taxes, including income tax (first levied in 1799). Introduced as a means of raising revenue in wartime, it was collected during the French Revolutionary Wars and
2626-526: The 1982 prison film, Scrubbers , starring Miriam Margolyes and Kathy Burke . Virginia Water Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 253349090 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 10:57:46 GMT Somerset House Somerset House
2727-611: The 20th century. In 2005, the Inland Revenue was merged with HM Customs and Excise ; its successor HM Revenue & Customs continued to occupy much of the building, although its executive and senior management moved to 100 Parliament Street shortly after the merger. Various divisions and directorates of HMRC continued to occupy the East Wing until 2009, the West Wing until 2011 and the New Wing until March 2013, by which time all staff had been relocated (with most moving across
2828-611: The Admiralty (based a mile away in Whitehall ) were problematic as what became known as the "civil departments" of the Admiralty guarded their independence. In 1868, the Admiralty took the decision to move all their staff from Somerset House to Whitehall; this necessitated reconfiguring what had been a set of residences there pertaining to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty into office accommodation. Nevertheless,
2929-675: The City of London and a shop and café were opened, overlooking the river. The Gilbert Collection of decorative arts, and the Hermitage Rooms , which staged exhibitions of items loaned from the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, moved into the same area. The last Hermitage exhibition took place in 2007 and the Gilbert Collection galleries closed in 2008; the collection moved into new galleries at
3030-749: The Excise Office had been merged with the Office of Stamps and Taxes to form the Inland Revenue, the latter took over the laboratory; by 1858 it was reestablished in Somerset House as the Inland Revenue Laboratory (with Phillips remaining in charge). It was also known as the Somerset House Laboratory. Under the Inland Revenue , the Laboratory's work expanded to encompass the testing of many different substances, including food, beer and spirits, as well as tobacco. Phillips retired as principal chemist in 1874. James Bell
3131-532: The Gothic would be most appropriate, as we can get red brick in the neighbourhood and a large building in the Italian style ought, I believe, to have stone facings”. The commissioners suggested that the best results would be obtained by submitting the plans to a competition of a limited number of architects. In September 1871 Holloway held the competition with the result that ten architects submitted eleven plans for
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3232-668: The Nelson Room and rebuilt the Nelson Stair. The work was completed in 1952 at a cost of (then) £84,000. In 1984 the Somerset House Act 1984 (c. 21) was passed, legislating the way for Somerset House to be redeveloped as a centre for the arts. In 1997 the Somerset House Trust was established as a registered charity to maintain the building and develop it as a centre for arts and culture. In
3333-445: The North Wing was still being completed. In addition to applying a rich scheme of architectural decoration, Chambers enhanced the exterior of Somerset House with a multiplicity of sculptures and other visual embellishments. Giovanni Cipriani produced designs and the sculptors executing them included Joseph Wilton , Agostino Carlini , John Bacon , Joseph Nollekens , John Cheere and Giuseppe Ceracchi . Bacon oversaw production of
3434-945: The Principal Registry of the Court of Probate (latterly the Principal Probate Registry of the Family Division ) was based in Somerset House, prior to its move to First Avenue House, High Holborn . In addition to the learned societies, the ground floor rooms of the North Wing housed the Hawkers and Pedlars Office (on the west side) and the Hackney Coach Office, the Lottery Office, the Privy Seal and Signet Offices (on
3535-510: The Queen on the same terms. (Provision was made for the King, who had privately purchased Buckingham House some years earlier, to be duly compensated). In due course, the King outlived the Queen and the property (later known as Buckingham Palace ) reverted "to the use of His Majesty, his heirs and successors". By virtue of the same act, Ely House in Holborn (which had itself been purchased just
3636-794: The School relocated to Marlborough House . In 1857, the Royal Society moved out of Somerset House, followed in 1874 by the Society of Antiquaries, the Geological Society and the Royal Astronomical Society ; they were all provided with new purpose-built accommodation in Burlington House. In 1789 the Navy Board moved into grand riverside rooms in the western half of the newly completed South Wing. It
3737-675: The Spanish Netherlands, seated around a conference table, probably in Old Somerset House. During the 17th century, the house was used as a residence by royal consorts. In the reign of King James I , the building was the London residence of his wife, Anne of Denmark , and was renamed Denmark House. She commissioned a number of expensive additions and improvements, some to designs by Inigo Jones . In 1609 Simon Basil and William Goodrowse made steps and terraces in
3838-605: The Stamp Office. The Lottery Office, established in 1779, was also abolished in 1831 and its residual business likewise passed to the Stamp Office. The Signet Office was abolished in 1851 and the Privy Seal Office in 1884. One of the first occupants of the building had been the Duchy of Cornwall Office. It was accommodated in the East Wing along with the Tax Office and various Exchequer offices (including
3939-410: The Treasury and Exchequer (which had been moved to Somerset House from the Palace of Westminster in 1793) remained stored in the basements until the establishment of the Public Record Office in 1838. The office of Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer ceased to exist in 1833 and the Pipe Office was abolished in 1834; however space in Somerset House continued to be at a premium: in 1854 an act of Parliament,
4040-409: The West Wing, alongside the naval offices, but it was abolished in 1798 (administration of the salt tax having been transferred to the Board of Excise). During the 19th century the North Wing contained, in addition, the offices of the Poor Law Commissioners (1834–47) and the Tithe Commissioners (1836–51), who also acted as the Copyhold Commissioners. Magnificent as the new building was, it
4141-413: The academy moved out in 1837 (initially to rooms in the new National Gallery , then to Burlington House , Piccadilly ). Its former accommodation was given over to a newly established Government School of Design (which was much later to become the Royal College of Art ); it remained in the complex from 1837 until, in 1853, the Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths needed to expand its office space and
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4242-483: The act comprised "The Salt Office, The Stamp Office, The Tax Office, The Navy Office, The Navy Victualling Office, The Publick Lottery Office, The Hawkers and Pedlar Office, The Hackney Coach Office, The Surveyor General of the Crown Lands Office, The Auditors of the Imprest Office, The Pipe Office, The Office of the Duchy of Lancaster , The Office of the Duchy of Cornwall , The Office of Ordnance , The King's Bargemaster's House, The King's Bargehouses". Somerset House
4343-416: The architect was Sir Robert Smirke . At the same time, as part of Smirke's scheme, the eastern third of the river frontage was completed, following Chambers's original design. Then, increasing demand for space led to another and last step. The western edge of the site was occupied by a row of houses used as dwellings for Admiralty officials who worked in the South Wing. Between 1851 and 1856, this terrace
4444-524: The arts and education. In the 16th century, the Strand , the north bank of the Thames between the City of London and the Palace of Westminster , was a favoured site for the mansions of bishops and aristocrats, who could commute from their own landing stages upriver to the court or downriver to the City and beyond. In 1539, Edward Seymour , 1st Earl of Hertford (died 1552), obtained a grant of land at "Chester Place, outside Temple Bar , London" from his brother-in-law King Henry VIII . When his nephew
4545-408: The asylum. The architects who responded to the invitation to submit designs for the asylum were Crossland, Salomons & Jones; Alfred Smith; T. Roger Smith ; Richard Phené Spiers ; J. P. Seddon ; J. S. Quilter; T. H. Watson ; E. W. Godwin (two designs); F. & H. Francis and Thomas C. Hine. The winning entry, with a first premium award of £200, was by Crossland, Salomons and Jones. Alfred Smith
4646-541: The bronze group of statues (consisting of Neptune and George III ) in the main courtyard, facing the main entrance from the Strand. Inside, most of the offices were plain and business-like, but in the North Wing the formal rooms and public spaces of the learned societies were enriched with painted ceilings (by Cipriani, Benjamin West , Angelica Kauffman , J. F. Rigaud , Charles Catton and Joshua Reynolds ), ornamental plasterwork (by Thomas Collins and Thomas Clerk) and casts of classical sculptures. John Papworth did
4747-552: The building began in the Spring of 1873, when a clerk of works was appointed. Holloway’s wife, Jane Holloway , laid the first brick. Crossland received an instalment of £300 on 2 March 1874. Once started, Holloway was determined that building should go forward apace. When his plan for the use of Portland stone in place of ornamental brickwork was not allowed to stand, Crossland had to set aside all his carefully planned working and detail drawings and hurriedly draw up alternatives for masons and master bricklayers. The first clerk of works
4848-494: The building during his period of training and later wrote a short biography of Chambers. The design influenced other great buildings: Charles Bulfinch 's Massachusetts State House , begun in 1795, has been described as a work "frankly derivative" of Somerset House. Chambers' own influences stemmed from Palladianism , the principles of which were applied throughout Somerset House, inside and outside, both in its large-scale conception and in its small-scale details. The footprint of
4949-452: The building still serves as head office for the Duchy. From 1785 the Commissioners for Auditing Public Accounts were also housed in the East Wing, as was the Duchy of Lancaster Office (having moved there from accommodation in Gray's Inn ) until it moved in 1823 to new offices across the road in Lancaster Place . The Surveyor of Crown Lands also had his office here until the early 19th century. The Salt Office initially occupied rooms in
5050-408: The building was referred to, then came into the possession of the Crown. The duke's royal nephew's half-sister, the future Queen Elizabeth I , lived there during the reign of her half-sister Queen Mary I (1553–58). The process of completion and improvement was slow and costly. As late as 1598 John Stow refers to it as "yet unfinished". In the summer of 1604, Somerset House was the location for
5151-404: The building was that of the old palace, ranging from its gateway block in the Strand across what was originally a gently sloping site down to the river. Chambers experimented with at least four different configurations of buildings and courtyards in drawing up his designs; his final version provided a single courtyard, 300 ft (91 m) by 200 ft (61 m), flanked by a pair of terraces,
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#17327914661985252-444: The capitals of continental Europe disquieting. Edmund Burke was the leading proponent of the scheme for a "national building", and in 1775 Parliament passed an act, the Crown Lands Act 1775 ( 15 Geo. 3 . c. 33), for the purpose of, inter alia , "erecting and establishing Publick Offices in Somerset House, and for embanking Parts of the River Thames lying within the bounds of the Manor of Savoy ". The list of public offices mentioned in
5353-406: The commission) was appointed in his stead, at a salary of £2,000 per year. He spent the last two decades of his life, beginning in 1775, in several phases of building at the present Somerset House. Thomas Telford , then a stonemason, but later an eminent civil engineer , was among those who worked on its construction. One of Chambers's most famous pupils, Thomas Hardwick Jnr, helped build parts of
5454-436: The competition on his own and had sought the assistance of distinguished Irish architect John Philpot Jones. Edward Salomons practised in Manchester where he and Jones had designed the Reform Club in 1870. It is possible that the two had met in Rochdale in 1866 when Crossland was engaged on the Town Hall and Salomons on the town's theatre. Crossland planned it to look like the Cloth Hall at Ypres (having tried this design
5555-406: The conditions of the time this meant almost inevitably that little money could be found for its upkeep, and a slow process of decay crept in. During the 18th century, however, the building ceased its royal associations. Though the view from its terraced riverfront garden, open to the public, was painted twice on his London visit by Canaletto (looking up- and downriver), it was used for storage, as
5656-418: The early 1980s, such as Bucks Fizz , Adam Ant , The Cure , Bonnie Tyler , " Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops " by Cocteau Twins , and Alphaville . The 1986 slasher film Slaughter High used the site for many scenes. The Main Hall (Recreation Hall) was used in the Michael Caine TV film /mini Series Jack the Ripper when Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline questions the beggars. The buildings were used to film
5757-399: The east and west in 1831 and 1856 respectively. The site of Somerset House stood directly on the River Thames until the Victoria Embankment was built in the late 1860s. The great Georgian era structure was built to be a grand public building housing various government and public-benefit society offices. Its present tenants are a mixture of various organisations, generally centred around
5858-412: The east side). The Hackney Coach commissioners had been established on a permanent footing in 1694, while the Board of Commissioners of Hawkers , Pedlars and Petty Chapmen dated from 1698; the latter was abolished in 1810 and its work taken over by the Hackney Coach Office until its abolition in 1831, whereupon responsibility for licensing both of hackney carriages and of travelling traders passed to
5959-405: The electro-convulsive therapy and sewing rooms were badly damaged. The sanatorium was closed in December 1980 and the remaining patients transferred to Ashford Hospital, which maintained a psycho-geriatric unit (Holloway Unit). On 21 July 1981 contents of "Holloway Sanatorium: antique and period furniture" were sold at Wentworth Auction Galleries. In 1994, under the guidance of English Heritage ,
6060-403: The end, only the western terrace was built and by 1801 the building was deemed to be complete, at a cost of £462,323. In 1815 Sir Robert Smirke was appointed as Attached Architect to Somerset House; in 1817 he added the Legacy Duty Office to the north-west corner of the quadrangle, its design in keeping with Chambers's adjacent façade. Even as late as 1819, decorative work to the exterior of
6161-463: The establishment of civil registration in the United Kingdom, the Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths set up his office in the North Wing of Somerset House, establishing a connection that lasted for over 130 years. This office held all birth , marriage and death certificates in England and Wales until 1970, when the Registry and its associated archives were moved to nearby St Catherine's House at Aldwych . From 1859 until 1998,
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#17327914661986262-425: The foundation of the Sanatorium and Royal Holloway College. After Thomas Holloway died George assumed the additional name of Holloway, and was knighted in 1887. The first medical superintendent was Dr. Sutherland Rees Phillips. In the early years of the sanatorium, nurses and domestic staff lived on the premises. There were 73 certified patients admitted in 1885, the first year. The 1891 census shows that Dr. Phillips
6363-402: The garden. Anne of Denmark built an orangery and employed a French gardener and hydraulic engineer Salomon de Caus . He built a fountain known as Mount Parnassus with a grotto carved with sea-shells and a black marble female figure representing the River Thames . The fountain was topped by a statue of Pegasus . A surviving cistern for the fountain in nearby Strand Lane was misidentified as
6464-400: The gas works at a cost of £1,950, six cottages and a workshop, and the sewage works which were constructed by John Thompson of Peterborough at a cost of £1,500. A large workforce was employed during the twelve years. The building accounts include costs of advertising for masons, not only locally in Surrey and Berkshire, but from as far as Birmingham and Manchester. Holloway worked supervising
6565-409: The great mysteries of the age, had been killed in Somerset House before his body had been smuggled out and thrown into a ditch below Primrose Hill . Somerset House was refurbished by Sir Christopher Wren in 1685. After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, Somerset House entered on a long period of decline, being used (after Queen Catherine left England in 1692) for grace and favour residences. In
6666-533: The insane of the poorer classes, and care at private establishments could be bought by the rich, the middle classes neither deserved the former nor could afford the latter. Charity for the poor demeaned its recipients: as far as possible people should be assisted to help themselves. The proposed asylum was not intended for the permanently insane, but as a refuge in which the temporarily deranged should be assisted to resume their working lives. At that meeting Holloway told Shaftesbury that he intended to spend his fortune on
6767-407: The late 20th century the building began to be reinvigorated as a centre for the visual arts. The first institution to move in (in 1989) was the Courtauld Institute of Art , including the Courtauld Gallery , which has an important collection of old master and impressionist paintings. The Courtauld occupies the North Wing. The main courtyard, which had been used as a Civil Service car park, and
6868-506: The main quadrangle was complete. It was originally envisaged that the main quadrangle would be flanked by two terraces of houses, one to the east and one to the west, providing accommodation for several of the Commissioners whose offices were based there. It is not certain at what pace the rest of the construction progressed, but it is clear that the outbreak of war with France in 1793 caused delays through lack of money. Chambers died in 1796, whereupon James Wyatt took over as architect. In
6969-411: The main terrace overlooking the Thames were refurbished and opened to the public, these alterations being overseen by the conservation architects Donald Insall & Associates . Grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund financed the conversion of the South Wing between 1999 and 2003: a visitor centre featuring audio-visual displays on the history of the building, the gilded state barge of the Lord Mayor of
7070-477: The move was completed by 1873, and the expanding Inland Revenue immediately took over the vacated space in Somerset House. From the beginning of the new Somerset House there was a fiscal presence in the shape of the Stamp Office and the Tax Office , the former occupying the eastern part of the South Wing from 1789 and the latter occupying part of the East Wing. The Stamp Office had the task of applying an impressed duty stamp to various specific items to show that
7171-427: The negotiations, known as the Somerset House Conference that culminated in the Treaty of London and concluded the nineteen-year Anglo-Spanish War . The treaty was signed on 28 August ( New Style ), at Whitehall Palace , by the Constable of Castile who was lodged at Somerset House. The conference was the subject of an oil-on-canvas painting depicting the 11 representatives of the governments of England, Spain and
7272-533: The ongoing dissolution of the monasteries . It was a two-storey house built around a quadrangle, with a gateway rising to three storeys, and was one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture in England. It is not known who designed the building. Before it was finished, however, the Duke of Somerset was overthrown, attainted by Parliament and in 1552 was executed on Tower Hill . Somerset Place, as
7373-531: The plasterwork in the great Royal Academy Room; many of the ceiling paintings were removed by the Royal Academy when they vacated their premises. A key reason for rebuilding Somerset House was to provide accommodation for a diverse variety of learned societies , public offices and naval administrators. The North Wing of Somerset House was initially fitted out to house the Royal Academy ,
7474-739: The previous year in the building of Rochdale Town Hall ) and the Great Hall was designed in the style of the gothic La Sainte-Chapelle in Paris . Jones, who had most of the work on the asylum design, died soon after the foundation stone was laid and Crossland records that most of the work then fell to him, Salomons being in Manchester. Crossland received commission of £7,620 – without travelling expenses for himself or his staff. In Victorian times many hospitals were built on spacious grounds in urban as well as rural locations, not only because more land
7575-417: The project closely until prevented by illness: unfortunately he died on Boxing Day 1883, eighteen months before the sanatorium was opened. By the time the institution was ready to admit patients, new regulations had come into force, and Crossland had to revise the internal arrangements to comply with the new safety regulations. Interior decoration was lavish: the great recreation hall with a grand beamed roof
7676-540: The rest of the quadrangle was complete up to a height of two storeys. Construction of the riverside wing followed; it was finished in 1786. At the time of construction, the Thames was not embanked and the river lapped the South Wing, where a great arch allowed boats and barges to penetrate to landing places within the building. Meanwhile, work continued on the East and West Wings, which began to be occupied from 1788; by 1790
7777-409: The sanatorium had a charm about it because "it was full of wandering lunatics". Bryson worked at the sanatorium in 1973 as a nurse on Tuke Ward. His Notes From A Small Island mentions the ward as home to "long-stay male patients in a state of arrested insanity". According to Bryson, the place was one of the most extraordinary communities in England. Many patients were allowed to wander freely down to
7878-582: The sanatorium passed to the NHS on 5 July 1948 which continued its hospital use with a catchment area including Weybridge, Walton, Chertsey, Egham and Virginia Water. Until 1974 private patients continued to be admitted into a limited number of "amenity beds", paying for the relatively aesthetic surroundings, but receiving standard NHS treatment. In 1968 it became administratively part of St Peter's Hospital in Chertsey . The travel writer Bill Bryson recorded that
7979-441: The shops and back, mingling on equal terms with the locals, who affectionately referred to the institution as "the sanny". On 8 February 1978 a disastrous fire broke out on the stage of the cinema which spread rapidly, fanned by a strong easterly wind. The patients were calmly escorted from the building and there was only one minor injury. The cinema and three wards, 'Clouston', 'Jane Holloway' and 'Thomas Holloway', were gutted and
8080-455: The street to the southwest wing of Bush House ). This brought to an end a 224-year association of the revenue services with Somerset House. In 1842, the Excise Office had established a laboratory within its Broad Street headquarters for the prevention of the adulteration of tobacco products. It had started as basically a one-man operation by an employee of the Excise, George Phillips. After
8181-506: The two as the "summit of High Victorian design". In 1948 the site was transferred to the National Health Service . In the year 2000, after more than a decade of neglect, the buildings were restored and some of the grounds converted to houses which led to the site's renaming. Many of the original features have been preserved involving direction by English Heritage . Thomas Holloway was a Victorian entrepreneur who made
8282-410: The whole presenting a unified frontage to the river, 500 feet (150 m) wide. Around the courtyard, each block consisted of six storeys: cellar, basement, ground, principal, attic and garret. The public offices and learned societies which were accommodated around the courtyard varied greatly in size, but each occupied all six floors of its allotted area, the upper floors often providing living space for
8383-438: The young King Edward VI came to the throne in 1547, Seymour became Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector . In about 1549 he pulled down an old Inn of Chancery and other houses that stood on the site, and began to build himself a palatial residence, making liberal use of other nearby buildings, including some of the chantry chapels and cloisters at St Paul's Cathedral , which were demolished partly at his behest as part of
8484-461: The “dry-pack”, with one patient, Thomas Weir, who died while confined at the end of the nineteenth century. Lyne Place, an imposing Regency house with gardens two miles (3 km) south at Wentworth Park which had been the home of Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky between 1930 and his death in 1947, was acquired by the Sanatorium to accommodate staff and patients in 1950. The management of
8585-487: Was J. P. Featherstone who had been a tenant farmer under Holloway: he was appointed in April 1873 and resigned on 24 December 1876. Among the contractors were: Sharpington & Cole, London (masons); W. H. Lascelles, Finsbury (joiner); George Burfoot, Windsor (paving); Pontifex & Wood, London (lead); Wilson W. Phipson (heating); J. Gibson, Battersea (landscaping); J. D. Richards, London (furnishings). Ancillary works included
8686-469: Was a foremost architect, the first Professor of Architecture at University College London , co-founder of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and its President in 1863-4. Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807–1880) similarly, who had been President of RIBA in 1870. Both Donaldson and Wyatt received some recompense for their services, the former 100 guineas and the latter 25 guineas. Holloway had
8787-430: Was also accommodated in the eastern half of the wing, though its premises were limited to a first-floor meeting room, a ground-floor library, an apartment in the attic and a kitchen in the basement. The Geological Society was also accommodated in the Somerset House from 1828, as was the Royal Astronomical Society from 1834. The annual Royal Academy Exhibition was held in Somerset House from 1780 onwards, until
8888-470: Was appointed keeper of Denmark House, and Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham frequently stayed there. After the death of King James in April 1625, his body was brought from Theobalds to lie in state at Denmark House. The state rooms were hung with black cloth. At this period there was no chapel at Denmark House, and so the Great Hall was adapted, and the body moved there before the funeral at Westminster Abbey . Between 1630 and 1635 Inigo Jones built
8989-468: Was available, but also because space had therapeutic and practical value: "An asylum should be placed on elevated ground and should command cheerful prospects, should be surrounded with land sufficient to afford outdoor employment for males, and exercise for all patients, and to protect them from being overlooked or disturbed by strangers." This ideal of the Commissioners in Lunacy was quoted by an architecture researcher from York University, Robert Mayo, in
9090-534: Was awarded the second premium of £100 and all the others received £50 for their trouble, except Hine, a Nottingham architect, who received only £25: possibly he had not actually been invited to submit a plan. The moneys were paid out in July 1872. In August 1872 the plans were placed on exhibition in the Regent Street gallery of E. Freeman. William Henry Crossland later recalled that he had not wished to go into
9191-580: Was decorated by the Scottish architect and designer John Moyr Smith at a cost of £400. The sanatorium was officially opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra ) on 12 June 1885. Mr. Martin-Holloway, who delivered the opening address, was Thomas Holloway's brother-in-law George Martin (1833–1895), who had married Sarah Anne Driver the sister of Jane Holloway. George and his brother Henry assisted Thomas Holloway in
9292-458: Was finished. It was then used as an occasional residence by Catherine of Braganza , wife of King Charles II . During her time it received a certain notoriety as being, in the popular mind, a hot-bed of Catholic conspiracy. Titus Oates made full use of this prejudice in the fabricated details of the Popish Plot and it was alleged that Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey , whose murder was one of
9393-500: Was in Somerset House that Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell 's body lay in state after his death in 1658. Two years later, with the Restoration , Queen Henrietta Maria returned and in 1661 began a considerable programme of rebuilding, the main feature of which was a magnificent new river front, again to the design of the late Inigo Jones , who had died at Somerset House in 1652. However she returned to France in 1665 before it
9494-641: Was interrupted by the Civil War , and in 1649 Parliament tried to sell it. They failed to find a buyer, although a sale of the contents (most notably 1,570 paintings owned by Charles I) realised the very considerable sum (for that time) of £ 118,000. Use was still found for it however. Part of it served as an army headquarters, with General Fairfax (the Parliamentarians ' commander-in-chief) being given official quarters there; lodgings were also provided for certain other Parliamentarian notables. It
9595-430: Was something short of what Chambers had intended, for he had planned for an additional terrace of houses to the east, as well as to the west of the quadrangle ; work had stopped short, however, cost being the inhibiting factor. Eventually King's College London was erected to the east (the government granting the land on condition that the design conformed to Chambers' original design) by subscription between 1829 and 1834;
9696-598: Was soon followed by its subsidiary Boards, the Victualling Commissioners and the Sick and Hurt Commissioners , which (along with the autonomous Navy Pay Office ) occupied the West Wing; they had all hitherto been based in the City of London . Thus the various Navy offices occupied around a third of Chambers' completed building. In addition, the terrace to the west of the quadrangle provided dwelling-houses for
9797-410: Was still technically a royal palace and therefore Crown property , with most work being done by the King's Master Mason, John Deval . The building had been placed in trust for the use of Queen Charlotte in the event that her husband King George III predeceased her. Therefore, the 1775 act annulled this arrangement and instead provided for another property, Buckingham House, to be vested in trust for
9898-422: Was substantially expanded and remodelled to provide the Inland Revenue with an entire new wing of additional office accommodation. As part of this development, its architect James Pennethorne created a monumental new façade alongside the approach road to Waterloo Bridge (which had not been in existence when Chambers was alive). 150 years later this part of the building is still known as the " New Wing". In 1891
9999-529: Was superintendent, listing 314 patients (including boarders) and 147 resident staff (medical, attendants and domestic). In 1901 the superintendent was Dr. William David Meares, and there were 384 patients and 210 resident staff. In 1911 the numbers were 368 inmates and 227 resident staff, with chief medical officer Dr. Thomas E. Harper and steward Jacob Jarvis Robertson. Holloway was known for its "innovative therapies" such as massage and gym exercise. However, controversial restraint methods were also employed such as
10100-685: Was the place where examinations for promotion to the rank of lieutenant took place, sat by several hundred midshipmen each year. The Admiralty Museum (a precursor to the National Maritime Museum ) was also accommodated there, in the central room above the south portico. In 1832 the Navy Board and its subsidiaries were abolished and their departments placed under the direct oversight of the Admiralty . Their administrative staff remained in Somerset House, but communications with
10201-654: Was then the principal chemist of Somerset House Laboratory until his retirement in 1894. He was replaced as principal chemist by Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe . At the same time, the laboratory was amalgamated with a similar facility that had been established within HM Customs and it was renamed the Government Laboratory . In 1897, Thorpe moved the Government Laboratory from Somerset House to a new building of his own design. In 1837, following
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