Somerset House -  Timeline

1547 Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, begins building a palace on the Thames.

1552 Seymour is executed at the Tower of London; the nearly completed palace passes to the Crown.

1553 Princess Elizabeth, aged 20, moves into Somerset House and lives there until 1558, when she becomes Queen Elizabeth I.

1603 Anne of Denmark, wife of James I of England (James VI of Scotland), moves into Somerset House, renaming it Denmark House.

1604 The Treaty of London, ending the 19-year Anglo-Spanish War, is negotiated and signed at Denmark House.

1609 Anne of Denmark invited Inigo Jones and other architects to redesign parts of the palace; work continued until she died in 1619.

1623 Charles I was crowned king; his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, commissioned Jones and others for further renovations, including a lavish new Roman Catholic chapel completed in 1636.

1642 The English Civil War began; General Thomas Fairfax took over the palace as headquarters for the Parliamentary Army.

1649 The Civil War ended, and Charles I was executed; Parliament failed to sell Denmark House but sold its contents for £118,000.

1652 Inigo Jones dies at Denmark House.

1660 Henrietta Maria returns to Denmark House after her son Charles II is crowned king; further construction follows.

1665 The Plague sweeps London; Henrietta Maria returns to France, dying there in 1669.

1666 The Great Fire of London stops just short of Denmark House.

1685 Charles II dies; his wife, Catherine of Braganza, moves into Denmark House, with Sir Christopher Wren overseeing renovations.

1693 Catherine of Braganza leaves Denmark House, the last royal resident.

1700 Denmark House serves as grace-and-favour apartments, offices, storage, and stables.

1750 Canaletto paints two views from the terrace.

1775 After decades of neglect, the original Somerset House was demolished, and architect William Chambers began work on its replacement.

1779 The Royal Academy of Arts becomes the first resident of the new Somerset House, now known as the North Wing.

1780 The Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries moved into the North Wing, and Somerset House hosted the first Royal Academy Exhibition.

1786 The Embankment Building (South Wing) is completed; East and West Wings follow two years later.

1789 The Navy Board moved to Somerset House, occupying one-third of the site; the Stamp Office joined the board in the South Wing.

1793 William Chambers retires at 72; James Wyatt replaces him as the building’s architect.

1801 The new Somerset House is completed, costing £462,323.

1829 Sir Robert Smirke started work at King’s College, which opened in 1831 and was completed in 1835.

1836 The General Register Office for births, deaths, and marriages is established here.

1837 The Royal Academy Exhibition’s final year at Somerset House; it moves to Burlington House on Piccadilly.

1849 The Inland Revenue forms, merging the Stamp Office, the Board of Taxes, and the Board of Excise, and remains for over 150 years.

1856 The New Wing, designed by James Pennethorne, is completed.

1857 The Royal Society moved out to join the Royal Academy at Burlington House; the Society of Antiquaries followed 17 years later.

1864 Work on the Victoria Embankment begins, designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and completed in 1870.

1873 The Admiralty leaves Somerset House; the Inland Revenue takes over its offices.

1940s At the start of WWII, the Inland Revenue temporarily moved out, replaced by the Ministry of Supply.

1950 Sir Alfred Richardson rebuilds the bomb-damaged Navy Staircase (Nelson Stair) over two years.

1970 The General Register Office moves out after 134 years at Somerset House.

1989 The Courtauld Institute of Art moves into the North Wing.

1997 The Somerset House Trust is established to preserve and develop the site for public use.

2000 The River Terrace opened to the public for the first time in over a century; the Hermitage Rooms and the Gilbert Collection opened, and a temporary ice rink was installed for the first time in December.

2001 American band Lambchop plays the first gig in the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court; a full program of shows follows in 2002 and continues as the Summer Series.

2009 London Fashion Week takes place at Somerset House for the first time.

2011 HMRC (formerly the Inland Revenue) closes its offices at Somerset House.

2016 Somerset House Studios launches.