Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cleopatra's Needle
busy Victoria Embankment, guarded by two Victorian sphinxes (facing the wrong way).
The 60-foot-high, 180-ton stick of granite actually has nothing to do with Cleopatra -
it's one of a pair erected in Heliopolis in 1475 BC (the other one is in New York's Cent-
ral Park) and taken to Alexandria by Emperor Augustus fifteen years after Cleopatra's
suicide. This obelisk was presented to Britain in 1819 by the Turkish viceroy of Egypt,
but nearly sixty years passed before it finally made its way to London. It was erected in
1878, above a time capsule containing, among other things, the day's newspapers, a box
of hairpins, a railway timetable and pictures of the country's twelve prettiest women.
SOMERSET HOUSE
Victoria Embankment Temple 020 7845 4600,
www.somersethouse.org.uk
.Courtyard & terrace daily
8am-11pm, interior daily 10am-6pm.Free.
MAP
Sole survivor of the grand edifices which once lined this stretch of the riverfront, Somerset
House's four wings enclose an elegant and surprisingly large courtyard. From March to
October, a wonderful 55-jet fountain spouts straight from the courtyard's cobbles; in winter,
an ice rink is set up in its place. The monumental Palladian building itself was begun in
1776 by William Chambers as a purpose-built governmental office development, but now
houses a series of exhibition spaces, and puts on events throughout the year.
In the house's north wing is the
Courtauld Gallery
(daily 10am-6pm; £6, £3 all day Mon;
www.courtauld.ac.uk
), chiefly known for their dazzling permanent collection of Impres-
sionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. Among the most celebrated works are a small-scale
version of Manet's nostalgic
Bar at the Folies-Bergère,
Renoir's
La Loge,
and Degas'
Two
Dancers,
plus a whole heap of Cézanne's canvases, including one of his series of
Card
Players
. The Courtauld also boasts a fine selection of works by the likes of Bellini,
Brueghel, Rubens, van Dyck, Tiepolo and Cranach the Elder, as well as twentieth-century
paintings and sculptures by, among others, Kandinksy, Matisse, Dufy, Derain, Rodin, Roger
Fry and Henry Moore.
