Somerset House

Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The building, originally the site of a Tudor palace, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776, and further extended with Victorian wings to the east and west. The East Wing forms part of the adjacent Strand campus of King's College London.

History

16th century

In the sixteenth 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 the nobility. In 1539 Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (d.1522), obtained a grant of land at "Chester Place, outside Temple Bar, London" from his brother-in-law King Henry VIII. When his nephew the boy-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 which 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 the ongoing Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was a two storey house built around a quadrangle with a gateway rising to three stories and was one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture in England. It is not known who designed the building.

Covent Garden

Coordinates: 51°30′43″N 0°07′23″W / 51.512°N 0.123°W / 51.512; -0.123

Covent Garden (/ˈkɒvənt/) is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum.

Strand

Strand may refer to:

Places

British Isles

Europe

WC postcode area

Postcode district boundaries: Bing / Google

The WC (Western Central) postcode area, also known as the London WC postcode area, is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes parts of the London Borough of Camden, City of Westminster, London Borough of Islington and a very small part of the City of London. The area covered is of very high density development. The current postcode districts are relatively recent: divisions WC1 and WC2 districts established only in 1917. Where the districts are used for purposes other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs, they continue to be commonly grouped into these two 'districts'.

Postal administration

Both the WC1 and WC2 postcode districts are part of the London post town. There are no dependent localities used in the postcode districts. The numbered districts were created in 1917. Before then it they had been included in the WC postal district. There has been no significant recoding of the postcode area from 1990 to 2007. There are Post Office branches in the WC1 postcode district at Grays Inn, High Holborn, Marchmont Street and Russell Square; and in the WC2 postcode district at Aldwych and Trafalgar Square. The Western Central District Office was located on New Oxford Street, which was a stop on the London Post Office Railway. Deliveries for WC1 and WC2 now come from Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in Farringdon Road.

House

A house is a building that functions as a home, ranging from simple dwellings such as rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes and the improvised shacks in shantytowns to complex, fixed structures of wood, brick, marble or other materials containing plumbing, ventilation and electrical systems. Most conventional modern houses in Western cultures will contain a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or cooking area, and a living room. In traditional agriculture-oriented societies, domestic animals such as chickens or larger livestock (like cattle) may share part of the house with humans. The social unit that lives in a house is known as a household. Most commonly, a household is a family unit of some kind, although households may also be other social groups or individuals. The design and structure of the house is also subject to change as a consequence of globalization, urbanization and other social, economic, demographic, and technological reasons. Various other cultural factors also influence the building style and patterns of domestic space.