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.

🐾 Meet the Soane family’s favourite four-legged friend!F***y was Eliza Soane’s beloved black and tan Manchester Terrier,...
26/08/2026

🐾 Meet the Soane family’s favourite four-legged friend!

F***y was Eliza Soane’s beloved black and tan Manchester Terrier, who has captured the hearts of so many visitors🖤🤎

F***y joined the family around 1803 and accompanied Eliza everywhere! Her presence was so important that Eliza’s letters home to her husband would often mention her, and on one occasion F***y’s paw was dipped into the ink so she could sign the letter too 🐾✉️

After Eliza’s death, F***y became a cherished companion to the grieving Sir John Soane, who described her as his “faithful companion”. He commissioned this portrait two years after she died, portraying her as an architect’s dog, seated on a capital, with one of the most celebrated buildings of Athens, the Erechtheion, in the distance.

A fitting tribute to a beloved companion – keep an eye out for this painting in the Breakfast Room this International Dog Day🐶

Endless portals into Soanean worlds 🌀🌍Painted by Joseph Michael Gandy around 1824, this watercolour imagines Sir John So...
24/08/2026

Endless portals into Soanean worlds 🌀🌍

Painted by Joseph Michael Gandy around 1824, this watercolour imagines Sir John Soane’s architectural works brought together in one vast gallery - an imaginative expansion of Soane’s celebrated Picture Room.

Rather than showing the Picture Room as it actually existed (a 13ft-square room with hidden folding picture planes), Gandy has ‘concertinaed out’ the space, imagining the picture planes stretched out into one continuous gallery. The result is a room large enough to display hundreds of paintings and models of Soane’s architectural designs, offering a glimpse into the extraordinary creative partnership between Soane and Gandy.

Which Soane buildings can you spot?👀🏛️

How do you like to spend your summer holidays? ☀️In 1804, Soane joined his family in Margate for a brief holiday, but wh...
20/08/2026

How do you like to spend your summer holidays? ☀️

In 1804, Soane joined his family in Margate for a brief holiday, but while away he was busy continuing to put pencil to paper, working on plans for the Bank of England.

This drawing, charmingly signed and dated “At Margate / Sepr 16: 1804”, shows Soane developing plans for the north-west corner of the Bank, the ‘Tivoli Corner’, part of the Bank’s extension which was built in 1806–07.

The design was inspired by the ancient Temple of Vesta at Tivoli - Soane’s favourite classical building. It’s particularly special because the Tivoli Corner is one of the few surviving parts of Soane’s Bank of England today, making this drawing an important link to Soane’s original vision.

No out-of-office for Soane. But not a bad way to spend a day at the seaside, designing the building that would become one of his greatest architectural achievements🌊✏️

14/08/2026

We went postcard hunting around the Museum, spotting some of our visitors' favourite spaces and artworks 🎨

Which one is your favourite?

If you’d like something to remember your visit by, you can pick up postcards and other keepsakes in the Shop and online - every purchase helps support the Museum💛
🔗https://shop.soane.org/

12/08/2026

Have you explored our latest exhibition yet?🎨🎲

𝙈𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙣 𝙑𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙧𝙥: 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙂𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨 invites visitors into the artist’s playful and surreal world - a place where discarded materials are transformed into creatures that bring joy anew and everyday objects reveal unexpected stories.

Through her distinctive blend of humour, storytelling and creativity, Vriesendorp encourages us to look again and see the familiar with fresh eyes.

🔗📽️Want to learn more about the artist and her creative process? Go behind the scenes in our exclusive film exploring Vriesendorp’s studio, now available to watch on our website (link in bio)

This exhibition has been generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth | Film produced by .studio
WhatsonLondon

Have you ever seen a staircase quite like this?🤩The cantilever, or ‘geometrical’, staircase in No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fiel...
05/08/2026

Have you ever seen a staircase quite like this?🤩

The cantilever, or ‘geometrical’, staircase in No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields is one of the Museum’s most striking architectural features, appearing almost to float!

As you’d expect from Soane, skylights, strategically placed windows and mirrors maximise natural light throughout the space, meaning the atmosphere shifts as you climb — until you reach the top, where the staircase is bathed in daylight🌞🪞

The walls, painted to imitate giallo antico marble, evoke the grandeur of imperial Rome and reflect Soane’s enduring fascination with classical architecture. Owing to the unusual shape of the building, the staircase broadens along the northern wall creating an asymmetrical plan - a detail only apparent when viewed from above.

Take a look on your next visit!

📸: Celia Rogge

There's always room for more paintings... right? 🖼️Sir John Soane certainly thought so – turning this 13ft-square room i...
29/07/2026

There's always room for more paintings... right? 🖼️

Sir John Soane certainly thought so – turning this 13ft-square room in his home in Lincoln's Inn Fields into an extraordinary gallery space, with a design that feels just as innovative today as it did two centuries ago.

Home to 118 paintings, the Picture Room showcases Soane's pioneering use of indirect natural light to illuminate art, first developed while designing Dulwich Picture Gallery, alongside his ingenious solution for displaying more paintings: concealed panels that open to reveal hidden layers.

Soane's ideas went on to shape the design of other purpose-built galleries, from the National Gallery in London to Frank Lloyd Wright's dramatic central light well at the Guggenheim.

🤩Join a Highlights Tour to have this room revealed to you by one of our expert guides – https://www.soane.org/whats-on/highlights-tour

📸: Gareth Gardner

A Grand Tour in miniature 🏛️✨One of Sir John Soane's final additions to his Museum, the Model Room is home to an extraor...
24/07/2026

A Grand Tour in miniature 🏛️✨

One of Sir John Soane's final additions to his Museum, the Model Room is home to an extraordinary collection of cork and plaster architectural models, depicting some of the most celebrated monuments of the ancient world alongside Soane's own building projects.

Inspired by the ruins he encountered on his Grand Tour through Italy, including Rome, Pompeii and Paestum, Soane assembled these models to inspire and educate his Royal Academy architecture students and the apprentices working in his office🎓

The room has a charmingly personal feel, having begun life as Mrs Soane's bedroom and retaining the same wallpaper found throughout the family's private apartments. Following her death, Soane left the room untouched for 19 years before eventually converting it into the Model Room in 1834.

🔗Explore these models up close on a Private Apartments tour, or by booking a private tour – head to our website to find out more - https://www.soane.org/

So you've seen Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey', but have you seen how artists have imagined this epic story over the c...
22/07/2026

So you've seen Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey', but have you seen how artists have imagined this epic story over the centuries?⚓🌩️

From the Cyclops to the Sirens and Odysseus' long journey home, we've picked out some of the film's most memorable scenes as they appear in this beautifully illustrated 1669 translation of Homer's 'The Odyssey' from Soane's collection.

Translated by John Ogilby, this remarkable volume was acquired by Soane in 1808 and is actually one of several editions of Homer's epic in his Library.

How many scenes from the film do you recognise? 👀

[1 – Odysseus and his crew safely pass the Sirens, 2- Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, a man-eating Cyclops and son of Poseidon, 3 – Odysseus strings his bow and shoots an arrow straight through targets while the Suitors watch]

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 | 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐩: 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 🎲Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp (b. 1945) has been a lifelong collector. Li...
15/07/2026

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 | 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐩: 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 🎲
Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp (b. 1945) has been a lifelong collector. Like Sir John Soane, she has gathered artwork and objects throughout her career, arranging them in her home and using them as sources of inspiration.

Bringing together over 50 works - ranging from early etchings to new sculptural works and jewellery - this major retrospective explores a lifetime of making driven by laughter and curiosity, and celebrates the surreal, subversive practice of artist Madelon Vriesendorp.

📅On display until 20 September 2026
📱Explore exhibition highlights online via our Bloomberg Connects guide

📸: Gareth Gardner

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

+442074052107

Website

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