Somerset House (ETW building)
| Somerset House | |
|---|---|
| Category: | Government |
| Level: | 6 |
| Turns to build: | 8 |
| Building cost: | 10000 |
| |
This is a national government building, purpose-built to house many of the important departments of state in a suitably awe-inspiring style.
Built on the Strand, Somerset House was in a neo-classical style, and was not unusual in having its own water gates and docks in the basement. Eighteenth Century roads were fairly appalling, so the River Thames was the main highway through London and well frequented by government officials. The Thames was also the main sewer for London, which may have made it difficult for casual onlookers to distinguish between politicians and lumps of dung.
When Somerset House was designed, it was intended to be a home for most of the government, at least according to the Act of Parliament in 1775 that enabled the work. Among other departments, space was to be available for the Salt Office, the Stamp Office, the Tax Office, the Navy Office (later the Admiralty), the Navy Victualling Office, the Publick Lottery Office, the Hawkers and Pedlar Office, the Hackney Coach Office, the Surveyor General of the Crown Lands Office, the Auditors of the Imprest Office, the Pipe Office, the Offices of the Duchies of Lancaster and of Cornwall, the Office of the Ordinance, the Bargemaster’s House, and the King’s Barge Houses. Over the next decades, additional building work allowed the Royal Academy, the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquities to find rooms, not to mention the University of London as some government tenants either moved out or were closed down.
Unique building to: 
This building can only be built in the faction capital.