Somerset House, London

The church of St Mary-le-Strand stands in the middle of the Strand opposite Somerset House, within easy reach of the Victoria Embankment, which runs along the north bank of the Thames between Westminster Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge. Just along the Strand to the east is the church of St Clement Danes, and beyond this is Fleet Street, with the Temple immediately adjoining. St Mary-le-Strand, a masterpiece of Baroque church architecture, was built by James Gibbs in 1714-17. Finely and rigorously proportioned, it is notable for its graceful steeple and unusual coffered ceiling.

The Courtauld Institute Galleries house valuable art collections bequeathed to London University, in particular by Samuel Courtauld, Lord Lee of Fareham, Roger Fry and the Princes Gate collection.The Courtauld Collection is one of the finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist pictures in Britain, with works by Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin and van Gogh. The Lee Collection contains works by Bartolomeo di Giovanni, Giovanni Bellini, Botticelli, Veronese, Bernardino Luini, Tintoretto, Goya, and Rubens, and portraits by British artists of the 17th-19th centuries. The Fry Collection, in addition to many works by the well-known art critic Roger Fry, consists of works by British and French artists of the late 19th and early 20th century.Smaller bequests include works of sculpture, ivories and pictures.

Although this obelisk of pink granite, standing 21m/68ft high and weighing 180 tons, comes from Egypt, it has no connection with Cleopatra. It was presented to Britain by Mohammad Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, in 1819, but was brought to London (after a stormy voyage in which six seamen were lost) only in 1878. It was set up on the Victoria Embankment and was at once christened by Londoners with the nickname by which it is still known. The obelisk is one of a pair erected at Heliopolis about 1500 B.C. Its companion, in New York's Central Park, has suffered the effects of pollution and is not in such a good state of preservation. The hieroglyphic inscriptions glorify the deeds and victories of Tuthmosis III and Rameses II, the Great.

The Gilbert Collection was formed over four decades by the late Sir Arthur Gilbert who first started to collect English silver. The 17 galleries present English and Continental gold and silver, precious snuffboxes, enamel portrait miniatures and Italian cabinets and tables.