How Did The Somerset House Important In The 18th Century

was widely witnessed mostly in the 18th century. This consisted of many social and economical changes which have created the London we see today. I will be using the famous and well known “Somerset House” as an example showing these changes.
Phil Pauley- Somerset House

Sir William Chambers was a well known architect during the 18th century. In 1749 he studied architecture, first in Paris with the influential architectural theorist Jacques-François Blondel and then in Rome. Returning to England in 1755, he became architectural tutor to the prince of Wales, the future George III. Chambers reputation and social statues as a public architect stands or falls on his achievement at Somerset house.

In the 18th century Britain started developing and
The navy’s commissioners Barge would have full access to sail directly in and out. Finally Chambers had accommodate those of the lower class, such as cooks,cleaners, secretes and housekeepers.

With so many people to accommodate Chamber had to design the Somerset house strategically. He had solved the problem by devising all the offices as town houses. Layed out in a quadrangular layout, which formed the courtyard. Chambers allowed each department to have a vertical slice of accommodation which included six story building- cellar, basement, ground floor, first floor, attic and garret.

Sehaj Rathore- Statue of George III, Courtyard
As well as structure the decor of the interior and exterior also was linked to social rankings. The navy offices were given much more importance with most of the south wings as offices and have very prestigues and elaborate designs in all their offices. Even though the Navy offices had such beautiful work done to their offices the rest of the Somerset house was left plain with a few sculptures and carvings. However later there were additional sculptures added such as the statue of George III in the court yard, which can still be seen today.

Sehaj Rathore- Exterior