The Gilbert Collection - A Gift to the Nation

Somerset House Yields Archaeological Secrets

The opening of one of London's newest museums in one of the country's most important buildings, Somerset House, was the catalyst for several exciting archaeological discoveries on the River Thames. The South and Embankment Buildings of Sir William Chambers' architectural masterpiece became the (temporary) home of the spectacular Gilbert Collection of decorative arts, one of the most important collections of works of art ever given to Britain.

The site of Somerset House on the Thames was originally occupied by episcopal houses and in the late 1540s a Renaissance palace was built there for the Lord Protector Somerset. The palace was seized by the Crown after Somerset's execution in 1552 and served as a royal dower house for two centuries. In 1775 it was transferred by an Act of Parliament from the Crown to the government for the benefit and convenience of the public. Somerset's palace was then demolished to make way for the present building which was constructed from 1776 onwards by George III's architect Sir William Chambers.

Somerset House is not only of great architectural importance, and significant as one of the earliest purpose-designed government office buildings, but is also a feat of civil engineering which required the construction of the Embankment Building in the Thames itself and the terracing of the rest of the site to provide the Courtyard, two storeys above the original Tudor garden.

When Sir Arthur Gilbert gave his magnificent collection to the nation in 1996, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant for the repair and fitting-out of the Embankment Building of Somerset House as a museum for its display, and a further grant was awarded to complete the repair of the remainder of the South Building. The Oxford Archaeological Unit was commissioned to make an archaeological record of the Embankment Building and the South Building during the extensive work involved with their conversion into the new museum.

Their survey confirmed the line of the 16th-century wall which originally fronted the garden of Protector Somerset's Tudor palace, and re-exposed a riverside bastion shown in a painting of the palace by Canaletto. It was found that the Embankment Building, lying between the South Building and the river, was constructed on timber piles set in the river with floors using state-of-the-art composite timbers.

Information was recovered on the aquatic environment of the River Thames in Georgian times which was the source of much of London's drinking water. The building had a piped water supply - a furnace and shaft which may have powered the water supply were revealed, complete with a huge iron stoking shovel. There was also a complex drainage system and the infill material around it was rich in finds from 18th-century London. Each office in the six-storey building had a soundproofing layer built into its floor and this layer collected many items which slipped between the floor-boards, from pen nibs and sealing wax to a medallion commemorating a royal wedding in 1818, and a personal possession lost by a visitor in 1980.

A key feature of the Embankment Building was the Great Arch that allowed the river to flow into the dock of the King's Barge House. This was closed when the Victoria Embankment was constructed in the late 1860s, removing the river from its direct connection with Somerset House. The Great Arch has now been excavated to its footings, restoring it to its full height and re-instating the 18th-century grandeur of the South Building where the Navy Board had its offices.

The Oxford Archaeological Unit could not at first identify the barge house floor or slipway, rumoured to be of Portland stone, until pressure cleaning revealed the ghost of the slipway as a white sheen on the ancient bricks. The excavations revealed that the King's Barge House was probably never big enough to take the splendid gilded royal barge built for Prince Frederick in 1732 and now in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. However, it appears to have been tailor-made for the two Commissioners' barges which would have been used for Navy Board officials to travel to the royal court, Parliament at Westminster and the dockyards downstream. These barges are also in the care of the National Maritime Museum which has generously volunteered to loan the more ornate example to Somerset House for display in its originally setting. Water transport on the river was very important in 18th-century London with wherries acting as water taxis to avoid crowded city roads. London river travel diminished with the replacement of the medieval London Bridge, which allowed the vicious tides of the Thames to sweep upstream making life difficult for the rowers.

More than a century later, a ceremonial barge is on view to the public at its original site - a testimony to the pomp and pageantry to be found on the River Thames in Georgian London.

This information was kindly supplied by:

Sue Bond Public Relations,
Hollow Lane Farmhouse, Hollow Lane,
Thurston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 3RQ

Tel. 01359 271085
Fax 01359 271934

Email: info@suebond.co.uk
www.suebond.co.uk

We are very grateful for her help in putting this article together.