Somerset House is open from 8am to 11pm, which is fifteen hours a day and longer than any museum in London. The courtyard costs nothing to walk into at any point in that.
The fountains, though, only run from 10am to 6pm. So the thing most people are actually coming to see is available for eight hours of the fifteen, and nothing at the gate tells you that.
The hours, which are three different sets
The Strand entrance: 8am to 11pm.
The New Wing: 8am to 11pm.
The Courtauld Gallery: 10am to 6pm.
The fountains in the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court: switched on daily from 10am to 6pm.
The practical version: the courtyard is yours early in the morning and late at night, the gallery keeps museum hours, and the water runs on the gallery’s timetable rather than the building’s.
What is free and what is not
The courtyard is free. A good deal of the cultural programme is free too, and the venue’s own What’s On listing carries a free filter, which is the quickest way to find out what is on at no cost on a given day.
The Courtauld Gallery is a separate ticketed gallery inside the building, in the North Wing, and this is where people get confused: walking into Somerset House is not walking into the Courtauld.
It is worth the ticket. The collection sits in the restored LVMH Great Room, which is London’s oldest purpose-built exhibition space, with six more galleries across the second floor in the Blavatnik Fine Rooms covering the Renaissance to the 18th century, including Botticelli’s The Trinity With Saints. There are rooms for Medieval and Early Renaissance work, and others for 20th century art and the Bloomsbury Group. Temporary exhibitions run in the Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries.
There is also a Historical Highlights Tour, one hour, every Tuesday and Saturday, which covers the history of the building itself.
Skate at Somerset House, 11 November to 10 January
The ice rink goes into the Fountain Court for the winter, under a 40 foot Christmas tree.
It runs from 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027.
Now the pricing, because the headline is doing some work. The billing says tickets from 11 pounds. The actual price band is adults 13 to 28.50 pounds and children 11 to 15 pounds, plus a fee of 1.50 pounds per ticket.
So the 11 pound figure is the cheapest child ticket at the cheapest time. An adult starts at 13 pounds and, at the top of the range, pays more than double that, and every ticket carries the 1.50 pound fee on top of whatever band you land in.
Two adults at the top of the range is 60 pounds for a skate. Two adults at the bottom is 29. The difference is entirely which session you book, so the booking calendar is where the saving is.
Around it: Skate Lates with Aperol Spritz run music nights from 12 November, a K-Pop Party with the Korean Cultural Centre is on 23 November, and the Skate School and Kids Skate Club start on 14 November and are described by the venue as an annual sell-out.
Our ice skating page compares the London rinks on price.
What else is on
The programme runs to exhibitions, tours, art fairs, talks, screenings and festivals. At the time of checking, Jenkin van Zyl’s Enclosure, a commissioned film and installation, was running from 24 September to 29 November 2026.
Somerset House is a registered charity rather than a public museum, which is why the model is a free courtyard with paid things inside it.
How to plan it
You want the fountains: come between 10am and 6pm. Any other hour and you are looking at an empty courtyard, handsome but dry.
You want the courtyard quiet: 8am, or after the gallery shuts. Fifteen hours of opening means early and late are genuinely available.
You want the art: the Courtauld, 10am to 6pm, ticketed separately from the building.
Skating: book the session rather than the day, because the adult price runs from 13 to 28.50 pounds depending on when you go.
It sits between the Strand and the river, so Covent Garden is five minutes north and the South Bank is over Waterloo Bridge.
Somerset House
- Address
- Strand, London WC2R 1LA
- Nearest
- Temple, Covent Garden or Charing Cross
- Hours
- Strand entrance and New Wing 8am to 11pm. The Courtauld Gallery 10am to 6pm. The fountains run daily 10am to 6pm
- Booking
- None for the courtyard. The Courtauld and the ice rink are booked separately
- Price
- Free to enter the courtyard. The Courtauld Gallery is ticketed separately. Skate tickets are adults 13 to 28.50 pounds and children 11 to 15, plus 1.50 pounds a ticket
- Standing
- A registered charity in an 18th century building, with a free courtyard and a paid gallery inside it
How to get in
The fountains are on for eight of the fifteen hours the courtyard is open. Skate at Somerset House runs 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027 under a 40 foot Christmas tree. A one hour Historical Highlights Tour runs every Tuesday and Saturday.
Where to go next
Ice skating in London compares the winter rinks on price, and the art galleries cover the free commercial rooms the Courtauld sits among.
Covent Garden is five minutes north and the South Bank is across Waterloo Bridge.
Questions we get asked
Is Somerset House free?
The courtyard is free to walk into, from 8am to 11pm. A good deal of the cultural programme is free as well, and the venue's What's On listing has a free filter. The Courtauld Gallery, inside the North Wing, is ticketed separately.
What time are the Somerset House fountains on?
Daily from 10am to 6pm. The courtyard itself is open from 8am to 11pm, so the fountains run for eight of those fifteen hours.
How much is Skate at Somerset House?
Adults are 13 to 28.50 pounds and children 11 to 15 pounds, with a fee of 1.50 pounds on top of every ticket. The advertised from 11 pounds is the cheapest child ticket at the cheapest session, not an adult price. The rink runs from 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027.
Is the Courtauld Gallery included with Somerset House?
No. The Courtauld is a separate ticketed gallery in the North Wing of Somerset House, open daily 10am to 6pm. Walking into the Somerset House courtyard does not get you into the Courtauld.
What are Somerset House opening times?
The Strand entrance and the New Wing open 8am to 11pm. The Courtauld Gallery opens 10am to 6pm, and the fountains run 10am to 6pm.
Is there a tour of Somerset House?
Yes. A one hour Historical Highlights Tour runs every Tuesday and Saturday, covering the history of the building.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 229 in the guide.
Last checked 5 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
