Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, 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 north and south.[2][3] The East Wing forms part of the adjacent King's College London.
Ever since hearing about a set of fabled tunnels between Somerset House and Kings College, I’ve been meaning to give these babies a little wander. I headed over to Somerset House and to my luck, there was a tour going on.
There was only so much of the guide’s awful jokes and constant health and safety warnings I could take though so after a while, I decided to go on my own tour in search of this ‘underground network’ I’d heard about. Here’s the results.
This narrow passage is full of little doorways, mostly containing old radiators, kettles, desks.
But one door contained something a bit more interesting…
…Catholic tombs taken from the original chapel that lay on this site before it was demolished during the Reformation.
The passage winds back and forth a little, then on the other side are some out-buildings of Kings College.
All fairly impressive but they didn’t really resemble the extravagant “maze-like underground passages†described here: http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/performance/in-the-beginning-was-the-end
Perhaps there’s a more expansive network elsewhere? Or perhaps the media just hyped it all up.
Before leaving Somerset House, a few other things to look out for:
Somerset House Utility Tunnels
Now for Kings College, The Strand campus:
I heard the basements were being stripped to make way for a new snazzy student complex (kudos to artist Richard DeDomenici for making me aware). After an amazing fail recently involving getting locked in the uni basements after-hours and having to call security (with just one bar of intermittent phone signal
), on the second attempt everything was ridiculously easy.
Somerset House on the left, Kings to the right:
And from above:
I stood there pondering that equation for a few hours…
(Apparently this was used in the immersive theatre piece by Dreamthinkspeak).
And just a few corridors round the corner…
Ever since hearing about a set of fabled tunnels between Somerset House and Kings College, I’ve been meaning to give these babies a little wander. I headed over to Somerset House and to my luck, there was a tour going on.
There was only so much of the guide’s awful jokes and constant health and safety warnings I could take though so after a while, I decided to go on my own tour in search of this ‘underground network’ I’d heard about. Here’s the results.
This narrow passage is full of little doorways, mostly containing old radiators, kettles, desks.
But one door contained something a bit more interesting…
…Catholic tombs taken from the original chapel that lay on this site before it was demolished during the Reformation.
The passage winds back and forth a little, then on the other side are some out-buildings of Kings College.
All fairly impressive but they didn’t really resemble the extravagant “maze-like underground passages†described here: http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/performance/in-the-beginning-was-the-end
Perhaps there’s a more expansive network elsewhere? Or perhaps the media just hyped it all up.
Before leaving Somerset House, a few other things to look out for:
Somerset House Utility Tunnels
Now for Kings College, The Strand campus:
I heard the basements were being stripped to make way for a new snazzy student complex (kudos to artist Richard DeDomenici for making me aware). After an amazing fail recently involving getting locked in the uni basements after-hours and having to call security (with just one bar of intermittent phone signal
), on the second attempt everything was ridiculously easy.
Somerset House on the left, Kings to the right:
And from above:
I stood there pondering that equation for a few hours…
(Apparently this was used in the immersive theatre piece by Dreamthinkspeak).
And just a few corridors round the corner…
