William Chambers built it for the learned societies of Georgian London. After two centuries of registrars and filing cabinets, it went back to art.
At a glance
The north range of Somerset House, facing the Strand, was designed by Sir William Chambers and built between 1775 and 1780. It was made to hold learned societies: the Royal Academy of Arts was there until 1837, the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries until 1867. For most of the twentieth century the block held the General Register Office of births, marriages and deaths. The Courtauld — an institute of art history and a gallery — moved in in 1989.
Key facts
- Architect: Sir William Chambers
- Built: 1775–1780, the Strand block of Somerset House
- Royal Academy of Arts: in the north wing until 1837
- Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries: until 1867
- General Register Office: occupied much of the block until 1970
- The Courtauld: moved in in 1989; some accounts date the arrival of the collection to 1990
- Earlier Courtauld homes: Home House, Portman Square; the gallery opened in Woburn Square, Bloomsbury, in 1958
- Recent works: the Courtauld Connects project, by Witherford Watson Mann; the gallery reopened in 2021
- GPS: 51.5117, -0.1174 · Open in Google Maps
History
Chambers designed Somerset House as a government building with a public front, and gave its Strand range to the learned societies. The Royal Academy held its exhibitions there from 1780, which is why the staircases are grander than an office needs. The Academy left for Trafalgar Square in 1837; the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries stayed until 1867.
What replaced them was paperwork. The General Register Office, which recorded every birth, marriage and death in England and Wales, filled much of the block until 1970. For a century the best rooms Chambers built were a records office.
The Courtauld Institute of Art had been founded in 1932 and worked from Home House in Portman Square, with its gallery in Woburn Square from 1958. In 1989 it moved into the Strand block, bringing the collection with it. The building was overhauled again in the Courtauld Connects project by Witherford Watson Mann, and the gallery reopened in 2021.
Who is there now
The Courtauld is two things in one address: an institute that teaches and researches the history of art, and a public gallery. The teaching is why the building matters to a heritage reader — a great deal of the twentieth-century scholarship on European painting was written in these rooms — and the gallery is why most visitors come.
What you see
A Portland stone front on the Strand, severe and symmetrical, with an arched entrance leading through to the great courtyard behind. Inside the north block the set pieces are the staircases: the Nelson Stair rises through the full height of the building in a stone spiral, lit from above by a glazed oval lantern. It was built for academicians carrying paintings up to an exhibition, and it still reads that way.
Sources & resources
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