This has to be one of my favourite places to visit in London.
Somerset House has played numerous roles over the years, in fact my first visit in the '80s was to get a copy of my birth certificate! Now it is known as the host to London Fashion Week and the place to come ice skating at Christmas.
What's free? Well, for a start, many of the exhibitions held in the various gallery spaces. One I just have to see opened yesterday, the work of Erwin Blumenfeld but there's also one at the moment of contemporary rugs, photos of the churches built by Hawksmoor and the National Art and Design Saturday Club Summer Show opens on Sunday.
I visit Somerset House for its exhibitions but the buildings themselves are just as big a draw; they are gorgeous. Free guided tours are held every Thursday and Saturday.
One corner of the courtyard houses the Courtauld Gallery. If you visit only one art gallery when in London, visit this one. It is fairly small so not as overpowering as a visit to the National Gallery, for example. The collection spans from the fourteenth century to the twentieth, with a mighty fine selection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. The art is a joy to behold but so are the architectural details in the rooms they are displayed in.
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| Yellow Irises, Pablo Picasso |
Entry is not free but the top price is, by London admission prices, a reasonable £6. On Mondays, including bank holidays, entry is half price. I managed to visit for free as I current hold an Art Pass. I visited the Becoming Picasso exhibition, which closes this Monday. One way it would have also been possible to skip the admission fee was to have gone along to one of the Picasso Lates dressed as a 1901 Parisian!
Have you paid a visit? Can you recommend any places to visit in London that won't break the bank?
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