Historic Buildings

Restoring and revealing Somerset House’s Salt Stair and the history of the Salt Tax

In 2025 Somerset House Trust marks its 25th anniversary and our transformation from centre of government administration to home of cultural innovators. Our project, which will restore Somerset House’s Salt Stair, aims to showcase and engage a broad public with the historic architecture of Somerset House, and tell the story of colonial Britain. Our 25th anniversary programme includes a major courtyard art commission, Great Salt Hedge, that tells of an impenetrable hedge that traversed India in the 19th-century to prevent the smuggling of salt, to increase revenues from the Indian Salt Tax. Somerset House had its own Salt Office, for the collection of an earlier iteration of the salt tax. Linking to the commission, our project will return the Salt Stair, named for its proximity to the Salt Office, to its former glory, making it accessible to the public for the first time, and deliver an associated heritage engagement programme.