Somerset House, West Wing

I recently visited the newly refurbished rooms in the West Wing and was pleased to discover another lovely staircase. This flight looks so simple and effortless. It is interesting to compare it to the staircase in the East Wing

There isn’t public access on to the flight, so these pictures are all taken through a glass door, which explains the weird reflections.

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I like that the  upper quarter landing is made up of a couple of stones – it isn’t necessary to always make them from a single stone.

From the lighter sections on the soffit of the flight it looks as if it may have had some beams supporting it at some stage.

 

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I nervously see that some of the tread nosings and top surfaces have been replaced on this part of the flight. This does severely weaken treads – particularly treads that have a triangular cross section as these do.

The other bonus that you get from walking through the West Wing is that you get an entirely new view of the Navy  (or Nelson) Stair.

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