Somerset House

occupies the site of a princely mansion built by Somerset the Protector, brother of Lady Jane Seymour, and uncle of Edward VI. At the death of Somerset on the scaffold it became the property of the Crown, and in the reign of James I. was called Denmark House in honour of Anne of Denmark, his queen. Old Somerset House was pulled down in the eighteenth century, and the present structure was erected by Sir William Chambers in 1776.