From tax to culture
Felicity Owen
The splendid extensions to London’s art institutions have been widely celebrated yet the renaissance of Somerset House has barely made news beyond the metropolis. In the spirit of the 120-year lease granted by the Crown in 1998, the Somerset House Trust has quietly been conserving and developing this grand 18th-century edifice, giving priority to the magnificent courtyard and south building with terrace overlooking the River Thames. Largely due to private enterprise, another of England’s architectural glories is playing its part in bringing culture and entertainment to the public with a constantly changing programme.
Replacing a dilapidated old palace, the present quadrangle was designed by the cosmopolitan Sir William Chambers, who responded to Parliament’s demand for an imposing building that would stand out in London’s small-scale hotchpotch to exemplify the power and culture of a confident nation. Having earlier tutored him in architecture, Chambers enjoyed a special relationship with George III, securing his patronage for a Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. The finest rooms on the Strand front were prepared for the Academy’s 1780 exhibition, and the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries followed into the left-hand side of the fine portico. From 1790 the south building accommodated the powerful Navy Office in handsome rooms west of the central Seamen’s Hall. Deep below, the Thames lapped into the Barge Dock providing the fastest access to Whitehall and Greenwich. This changed in the 1860s, when Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s brilliantly constructed Embankment incor porated a sewer and railway under the road.
Chambers had died in 1796 and Robert Smirke completed the east wing in 1825, while in 1836 the sensitive realisation of the west wing earned Sir James Pennethorne many plaudits. The Navy Office was abolished in 1832 when power moved to the Admiralty; the three societies moved elsewhere; and Somerset House was gradually reduced to a mixed bag of government departments, including the Inland Revenue, which still occupies the wings today.
The reversal of fortune came in 1979 when the Courtauld Institute of Art and Gallery moved into the Strand frontage, offering space for the increase in student numbers to the more than 400 required for independence. A de bono McKinsey report strongly endorsed the establishment of the elitist Courtauld as a separate college within London University, conditional on a £20 million endowment, and, with the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFC) supportive, the vice-chancellor signalled his approval. This was a remarkable achievement by the advisory board of trustees, led by Sir Nicholas Goodison in support of his director, Eric Fernie. Lord (Jacob) Rothschild was the catalyst in providing the introduction to the Getty Foundation, which transformed the financial situation, and collaboration continues today, notably in conservation and archaeological projects.
The Courtauld, dedicated to Western art, has Dr Deborah Swallow as director, a specialist in Asian studies. The gallery benefits from the Institute’s unsurpassed research capacity, which results in unique exhibitions that expand knowledge: until 22 January Derain’s London views are shown, with his original sketchbook, and these supplement brilliantly existing early 20th-century works.
On the piano nobile the restored Academy rooms provide a gracious setting for a distinguished collection of Old Masters, many from the Count Antoine Seilern collection, and superb Impressionists, including Manet’s ‘Un Bar aux Folies-Bergere’, voted one of Britain’s ten greatest paintings. All works are bequeathed or loaned by private collectors, notably Samuel Courtauld and Lord Lee of Fareham, who collaborated to form the Institute and Gallery in 1932. The whole enterprise has an income approaching £9 million (£5 million for staff), while HEFC grants, subject to stringent and time-consuming assessments, contribute about 50 per cent.
The Courtauld is now responsible for the Hermitage Rooms in the south block. These, decorated in the style of Russia’s great State Museum, exhibit a variety of treasures. The Road to Byzantium is scheduled to open on 30 March next year. But the government is required to indemnify the exhibits against possible seizure — a situation which has huge implications for lenders and borrowers worldwide. With London the prime outside associate, exchanges with St Petersburg’s vast resources are increasing.
Rothschild, now chairman of the Hermitage Development and Gilbert Collection Trusts, was instrumental in introducing the Russian connection after his intervention had secured the Gilbert Collection of decorative arts for the rooms below. The Heritage Lottery Fund contributed to the transformation of the Embankment level and set up the Collection formed by the late Sir Arthur Gilbert. His taste for the ornate led him to acquire Italian mosaics, spectacular gold snuffboxes, jewellery and silver, many English pieces being retrieved from other countries. Loan exhibitions build on these strengths and Bejewelled by Tiffany, opening next summer, will bring 200 glamorous pieces created over 150 years.
Meanwhile, David Hockney has lent his Midsummer: East Yorkshire 2004 watercolours for the first time, until 19 February, making an interesting contrast to the Courtauld’s own Spooner Collection of early British Watercolours in the Hermitage Rooms. Also accessed from the Embankment is the Learning Centre, outstandingly well equipped, without government help, to welcome school parties and families.
Reopened in 2000, Somerset House now draws one million people annually, a further 200,000 paying £5 to see one of the collections. The Courtauld is free on Mondays up to 2 p.m. The elegant courtyard, part of the route from Waterloo Bridge through the Seamen’s Hall to the Strand, has been brought to life by the Fountain Court. In December and January this gives way to the open-air ice rink, used by some 250,000 skaters; in summer, concerts take place at weekends, and next autumn the Craft Council Fair, hitherto in Chelsea, may feature.
Much of the building still awaits restoration that is currently funded out of income, about 75 per cent coming from rent paid by the Inland Revenue. When this moves, it will still be necessary to charge a commercial figure, but long-term plans look to another cultural organisation to come into the south building on special terms, a photography collection being favoured.
Gwyn Miles joins in January from the V&A as executive director and is expected to add an impresario’s touch, pulling together the various strands. While the profitable corporate-entertaining side is expanding, and the Admiralty Restaurant does well, there is a crying need for a middle-price café where visitors can meet, spend money and enjoy the exceptional ambience.
The chairman of the trustees, Sir Christopher Mallaby, has ambitious plans for the future, and such remarkable progress has been made, driven by opportunism, generous benefaction and sponsorship, that anything seems possible.
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