Somerset House was built for a duke who never saw it finished. Edward Seymour began construction in 1547, but his ambitions outpaced his luck: he was executed at Tower Hill five years later. The property passed to the Crown, and a young Princess Elizabeth took up residence before becoming queen.

The Thames once lapped against the building's south wing, where a great arch allowed boats to glide inside. In winter, when the shallower river froze solid, Londoners held frost fairs on the ice. Today the Embankment road blocks that watery view, though the terrace remains one of central London's finest public spaces, built from self-cleaning Portland stone.

For 150 years, this architectural showpiece housed the Inland Revenue. VoiceMap's audio tours trace its unlikely journey from royal residence to tax office to cultural landmark, and reveal its double life as a Cold War–era St Petersburg in James Bond's GoldenEye.