Sir John Soane's Museum

Sir John Soane's Museum The house and museum of Sir John Soane, renowned neo-classical architect. Home to an eclectic collect Welcome to the page of Sir John Soane's Museum.
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Sir John Soane, R.A., architect, was born in 1753, the son of a bricklayer, and died after a long and distinguished career, in 1837. Soane designed his house to live in, but also as a setting for his antiquities and his works of art. After the death of his wife (1815), he lived alone, constantly adding to and rearranging his collections. Having been deeply disappointed by the conduct of his two so

ns, one of whom survived him, he determined to establish the house as a museum to which ‘amateurs and students’ should have access. The Museum is a building of outstanding originality, with its picturesque vistas and inventive handling of light and space. He filled it with a remarkable collection of art, sculpture, books, drawings and models. The collection includes paintings by Hogarth, Canaletto, Turner and Reynolds; antique sculpture; plaster casts; architectural models and an Egyptian sarcophagus. The objects are arranged in a labyrinth of top-lit spaces, decorated with hundreds of mirrors.

Would you look at that! 🤩Previously, one of the most popular comments received by our volunteers and our Visitor Assista...
16/01/2025

Would you look at that! 🤩

Previously, one of the most popular comments received by our volunteers and our Visitor Assistants when visiting our kitchens was, “Did he forget to decorate in here?”

And truly, in comparison to the walls of the ‘Museum Proper’, barnacled with casts and fragments, the kitchens had been made bare. This was due to the fact that the kitchens were still in use after the Museum opened and so historic items had been replaced and lost overtime. 🍽️

As part of the Museum’s ongoing efforts to restore every inch of the building to as it was left when Soane died, our Inspectress and our Archivist have worked to find items to display that are accurate to those used in Soane’s lifetime.

On your next visit to the Museum, we hope the kitchens’ new additions will bring more life to this wonderful building!

We’re delighted to share that Will Gompertz has been appointed as our new Director! 🎉Will, who is currently Artistic Dir...
04/08/2023

We’re delighted to share that Will Gompertz has been appointed as our new Director! 🎉

Will, who is currently Artistic Director at the Barbican and will be familiar to many for his eleven years at the BBC as Arts Editor, will take up the post in January, following in the footsteps of Dr Bruce Boucher, the Deborah Loeb Brice Director, who will retire at the end of 2023 after nearly eight years leading the Museum through a period of great change and success. Will said: “I look forward to championing the Museum and Soane’s vision, bringing audiences to our newly-restored home and taking Soane’s vision out into the world.”

Please join us in welcoming Will to the Museum! 👋

More: https://bit.ly/3Oids0t 📰

📸 Sam Churchill

15/06/2023

Meet the Soane's first Artist-in-Residence, Sam Belinfante! 🎨🎥

An audio-visual artist, Sam has been busy recording performances around the Museum. Based in Sir John Soane’s newly restored Drawing Office, he describes working in this unique space, following in the footsteps of Soane’s pupils: “I like to think about the mess, the charcoal, the smells, the candles, and the activity, but the pedagogical aspects too, the teaching, the crits, the disagreements!” 📚

Here, Sam tells us all about how the neverending ‘performance’ of light in the Soane is inspiring his project. We hope to share Sam’s work with you later in the summer! ✨

Landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith exploring the Soane’s own unique 'garden', the Monk’s Yard! 💐🏺On 5 June, Tom – who ...
18/05/2023

Landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith exploring the Soane’s own unique 'garden', the Monk’s Yard! 💐🏺

On 5 June, Tom – who has designed gardens, parks and landscapes throughout the world – will be in conversation with author and critic Alice Rawsthorn for our next talk at the Soane, exploring his creative practice through the lens of a single object.

Find out more: bit.ly/3OkHDWg 🎟️

Curious to learn more about Sir John Soane’s  ? ✍️🔍 Join our Inspectress and Deputy Director Helen Dorey for a fascinati...
13/05/2023

Curious to learn more about Sir John Soane’s ? ✍️🔍

Join our Inspectress and Deputy Director Helen Dorey for a fascinating talk about a day in the life of Soane’s architecture pupils, and explore the Office yourself.

17 May, 6.15pm | Find out more: https://bit.ly/3BhCXcb 🎟️

📸 Gareth Gardner

Nearly two centuries ago, Soane’s London witnessed another  ! 👑✍️Celebrated painter George Jones RA made a pair of sketc...
05/05/2023

Nearly two centuries ago, Soane’s London witnessed another ! 👑✍️

Celebrated painter George Jones RA made a pair of sketches inside Westminster Abbey during the coronation of King William IV and Queen Adelaide on 26 June 1830. George Jones may have intended to work these sketches up to produce a large oil painting of the scene, but if there ever was such a work its whereabouts is unknown. He was known for producing large-scale works recording famous military victories and national events; Jones won a prize for his ‘Battle of Waterloo’ in 1820, which now hangs in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, in an interior designed by Soane. He also painted ‘The Opening of the New London Bridge’ in 1831, commissioned by Sir John, which now hangs in our North Drawing Room.

Even in these modest sketches, Jones’ famed talent for capturing the characterful details of crowded, monumental scenes shines through! 🖼️

Today we open for   week, so the frontage of the Museum has been decorated with a charming floral display of red, white ...
03/05/2023

Today we open for week, so the frontage of the Museum has been decorated with a charming floral display of red, white and blue, courtesy of Bloomsbury Flowers – including these marvellous floral crowns. 💐👑

Do pop by to take a look. We’ll be open on the bank holiday too! 👋

19/04/2023

Hear from top designers in a unique series of inspirational talks at the Soane! 😍✨
These are the wonderful speakers for our fourth season of By Design, a public talk series in which top designers discuss their practice, through the lens of a single object.
Kicking off with the amazing lighting designer Peter Woodroffe on 9 May, this season will also feature architect Farshid Moussavi, garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith, fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic, interior designer Emily Todhunter and artist Alvaro Barrington, with Will Gompertz and Alice Rawsthorn chairing. What a line-up!
Each event, made possible by the support of Luke Irwin, will offer you the chance to hear from these remarkable creative voices and after-hours access to the many beautiful spaces of the Soane, followed by an intimate drinks reception in the newly restored South Drawing Room. We hope these talks will be enlightening for anyone with a passion for creativity and design.
Tickets are on sale now: https://www.soane.org/by-design

Check out the sheer mass of this monumental mausoleum design! 🤯🏛️This year, we’re celebrating the tercentenary of the bi...
15/04/2023

Check out the sheer mass of this monumental mausoleum design! 🤯🏛️

This year, we’re celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of Sir William Chambers (1723 – 1796), one of the most acclaimed architects of the later eighteenth century and one of Soane’s architectural inspirations. This extraordinary design for a mausoleum for Frederick Prince of Wales is considered to be one of Chambers’ most magnificent conceptions, and although never built, the exercise won Chambers a loyal patron in Frederick’s widow, Princess Augusta. 👑

At the time of the prince’s death, in March 1751, Chambers was studying in Italy and this neoclassical monument is heavily influenced by Roman funerary architecture. Perhaps intended for the prince’s estate at Kew, where Chambers would go on to design more than twenty buildings and follies, the enormous scale of the design is indicated by the minute figures depicted – looking up in understandable awe! 😲

You find out more about the relationship between Chambers and Soane by exploring our online exhibition: https://bit.ly/3KWwsRz 📜

We love the elegant sweep and rich colours of the Soane’s beautiful staircase! 😍Owing to a peculiarity of the site on wh...
29/03/2023

We love the elegant sweep and rich colours of the Soane’s beautiful staircase! 😍

Owing to a peculiarity of the site on which no. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields is built, the staircase broadens on the northern wall – which creates this beguilingly asymmetric shape from above. Light floods right down through the house from up here, and on London’s occasional brighter days, it’s a delight to watch the colours and shadows shift across Sir John’s unique collections arranged below. 🏘️⛅

Photo: Yifan Liu

We adore these lovely drawings of the Museum, made nearly a century ago! 😍These works were presented to the Museum by th...
15/03/2023

We adore these lovely drawings of the Museum, made nearly a century ago! 😍

These works were presented to the Museum by their talented creator Percy May in 1944, but were in fact sketched two decades earlier, on 20 March 1925, some 98 years ago. We discovered this precise detail by looking back at the Curator’s Diary; a priceless record, of which there is an unbroken record in our archives, that helps us investigate any and all goings on at the Museum in days gone by. The diary for that spring day in 1925, kept by then-Curator and architectural historian Arthur T. Bolton, notes ‘P May to come to make sketches’. It’s recorded that Arthur and Percy would work together again later that year, spending a day studying Osterley House in West London, before May’s sketches were reproduced in a book about Soane, published by Bolton, in 1927. Unfortunately, there are no records to suggest who the characterful figure reading in the sketch of the Breakfast Room might have been. A Hitchcockian cameo by the artist? Or our erstwhile curator, captured for posterity? 🖼️

The Soane continues to be a proud hub for drawing: pop in to see our current exhibition 'The Architecture Drawing Prize' and discover unique visions of our built environment from around the world which, we’re sure, Percy and Arthur would have found most engaging! 🤯

F***y the Dog is off on loan to the Wallace Collection! 🖼️🐶Described by a family friend as ‘a good and true little dog, ...
09/03/2023

F***y the Dog is off on loan to the Wallace Collection! 🖼️🐶

Described by a family friend as ‘a good and true little dog, worthy for her intelligence and affection, to be tenderly recollected’, this depiction of John and Eliza Soane’s beloved Manchester Terrier, painted by James Ward RA, is joining the Wallace’s new exhibition ‘Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney’. The show opens on 29 March. 🎨

Before departing, F***y has spent some time in our Conservation Lab, where her frame has undergone vital restoration, to ensure she can shine amongst an exhibition of 50 carefully selected paintings, sculptures, drawings, works of art and taxidermy – exploring the relationship between humans and their four-legged friends.⁠

F***y will return to the Soane in the autumn. So for now, farewell! 👋

Photo: Molly Magrath

A wonderful opportunity to join the Soane: could you lead our amazing team of volunteers? ✨We depend on the enthusiasm a...
28/02/2023

A wonderful opportunity to join the Soane: could you lead our amazing team of volunteers? ✨

We depend on the enthusiasm and expertise of our volunteers to remain open to the public and to share the stories of Soane’s life and collection. As our Volunteer Manager, you would be responsible for recruiting, training, and managing around a hundred volunteers in a variety of roles, working closely with our Front of House team to ensure the best visitor experience for our visitors and a wonderful work environment for the whole team. 🏛️

Find out more about the opportunity: https://bit.ly/3Y6S4xW. Any questions, let us know! 👌

Image: Matt Clayton

Why did Sir John Soane keep a lock of Napoleon Bonaparte’s hair in a ring? 👑🤔The lock was given to Soane by Betsy Balcom...
23/02/2023

Why did Sir John Soane keep a lock of Napoleon Bonaparte’s hair in a ring? 👑🤔

The lock was given to Soane by Betsy Balcombe, the daughter of an official on the island of St. Helena who befriended the exiled Emperor in his final days. Betsy is thought to have been in London between 1818 and 1823, so likely sent Soane the hair either after meeting him or having heard of his collector’s interest in the Emperor.

The mourning ring expresses Soane's personal feelings about Napoleon's death – a global figure of fascination for many. It was such a treasured and private possession that it was not listed in the early draft inventories of Soane’s museum drawn up in the last two years of his life, but instead featured in his Will as one of a small group of items to be kept as heirlooms by his family.

Discover how the ring returned to the Museum’s collection and learn more about Sir John’s varied collection of ‘Napoleonica’ at our upcoming ‘In Focus’ talk. Tickets available here: https://bit.ly/3xNceSR 🎟️

We love these elegant drawings of the Soane’s beautiful country villa: Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing! 😍🏠These atmospheric w...
19/02/2023

We love these elegant drawings of the Soane’s beautiful country villa: Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing! 😍🏠

These atmospheric watercolours were produced before the completion of the Manor in 1803 – their status as designs rather than ‘as-executed’ views is hinted at by the theatrical stage curtains which run across the top of the scenes. Both views feature Soane's beloved wife, Eliza. It was hoped that the project of creating a perfect family home at Pitzhanger would inspire their sons, John Junior and George, into successful careers in architecture.

There were many design commonalities between Pitzhanger and Sir John’s simultaneous and subsequent work at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, with some spaces at Pitzhanger – like the basement ‘Monk’s Dining Room’ – being a direct predecessor to the Monk’s Parlour that would follow, added to his Museum, in the 1820s. Pitzhanger was far removed from the noise and business of Georgian London, although Sir John would regularly commute on foot between Holborn and their handsome country pile. These days, it’s far simpler to hop on the Central Line. So, why not plan a Soanean day out this Spring to visit both? 👋🏛️

A question we’re often asked: why does our bust of John Soane look like Julius Caesar? 🤔This marble sculpture was presen...
17/02/2023

A question we’re often asked: why does our bust of John Soane look like Julius Caesar? 🤔

This marble sculpture was presented to him by his friend, the sculptor Francis Chantrey, in 1829. It took him two years to craft, with Soane sitting for him – although presumably not in a toga. It has been speculated that the likeness to Caesar is a reference to Soane’s love of the classical world, but of his own work, Chantrey wrote: “Whether the bust shall be considered John Soane or Julius Caesar is a point that cannot be determined by either you or me. I will however, maintain that as a work of art I have never produced a better.” ✨

‘My work is unknowable and mysterious but undeniably excellent’: a position on one’s own creativity we can all aspire to! 🎨

Have you ever been on a date to Sir John Soane’s Museum? How did it go? ❤️There’s nothing quite like our candlelit eveni...
14/02/2023

Have you ever been on a date to Sir John Soane’s Museum? How did it go? ❤️

There’s nothing quite like our candlelit evenings – warm light and deep shadow playing across the many sculptures, paintings and unique spaces of the Museum. If you’re in need of date inspiration this Valentines Day, our upcoming March is set to be a wonderfully atmospheric occasion, celebrating Soane’s mastery of architectural drawing and illuminating the stories behind prized elements of his collection. 🕯️

⏰ Friday 31 March, entry from 6pm | Book your tickets today: https://bit.ly/3lDQBl2 🎟️

Photo: Alexander Newton

Address

13 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London
WC2A3BP

Opening Hours

Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

02074052107

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