Interior, Sir John Soane’s House Museum
At Lincoln’s Inn Field , architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837) built three townhouses between 1792 and 1824 to house his remarkable collection of antiquities and objects d’art. The Museum was established by a private Act of Parliament in 1833 The house was opened to the public after the architect’s death in 1837.
Today, the museum is best seen on first Tuesday evening of each month when it is lit by candlelight. In three years, after a £7 million restoration, Soane’s private apartments will be opened to view for the first time in 170 years. Soane was known for his original designs of internal spaces and lighting, and for incorporating shallow domes, segmental arches, and clerestories.
Sir John Soane’s House and Museum. Image @Tony Grant
During the latter half of the 18th century (before the Napoleonic Wars), it was the custom of British collectors, painters and patrons to study antiquities of the ancient world during their Grand Tour of the Continent. The great collectors returned home laden with objects that they had acquired, most notably sculptures, gems, coins, vases, mosaics, paintings, and architectural fragments from such countries as Italy, Egypt, and Greece. These visitors, mostly gentlemen, also brought back their vast knowledge (and love) of classical architecture, which in turn influenced the Neoclassical buildings, interiors, and styles so popular during the Georgian and Regency eras.
Interior of the Soane Museum**
Interior, original Bank of England
Sir John Soane traveled to Italy between 1777 – 1780 to study architecture on a scholarship from the Royal Academy, and acquired his collection between the 1780s and his death in 1837. Among his designs are the Bank of England (now torn down), Dulwich College Art Gallery, and his own houses in Lincoln Fields Inn.
On his appointment as Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy in 1806 Soane began to arrange the Books, casts and models in order that the students might have the benefit of easy access to them and proposed opening his house for the use of the Royal Academy students the day before and the day after each of his lectures. By 1827, when John Britton published the first description of the Museum, Soane’s collection was being referred to as an ‘Academy of Architecture’. – Sir John Soane’s Museum: Official Site
The three doorways to the Sir John Soane’s House Museum. Image @Tony Grant
Jane Austen's World 
Details of the ‘candlelight openings on the first Tuesday of each month’ [i.e. today March 1] are at: http://www.soane.org/your_visit/evening_opening/
‘ . . This event is extremely popular, and we suggest arriving as early as possible to avoid disappointment. The queue generally builds up from around 5pm. The first 60 people will be invited in to the house, and then we operate a one in one out system for the evening. Average visiting time is about an hour or so . . ‘
It is a cold and windy day today in London, so I think I leave this treat to be enjoyed by younger and hardier folk than I . .
Wow, that line is long! I agree with you. On a cold day, I would sit in a snug pub and have a proxy stand in for me. Hah!
Another reason to go back to England.
I’ll go with you!
Oh wow…thanks for posting this! I love that museum! I went in the early 90s for an architecture class. My favorite part (other than the insanity of the sheer volume of stuff in there) was an area with tons of Hogarth paintings. They were hanging on swinging doors–sort of like how you view rugs at a store. I’ve never seen art hung in such a manner.
I wanted to show the Hogarth paintings in situ, but had no source. Love your description.
The Hogarth display is a amazing. Miss Osborne is right. You walk into a small room 3 or 4 meters square and each wall has maybe four Hogarth paintings on them, so 16 to start with. Then each wall has panels that in turn fold back to reveal another set of Hogarth paintings. Then a third layer of panels fold back to reveal yet more. It is an insane number of paintings in that very small room. The Hogarth pictures are not the black and white prints but the original coloured ones. I think it’s the entire story of The Rakes Progress from what I remember.
I think there are also illustrations, in the same room, of Soane’s plans for The Bank of England and other grand monumental bulidings. Most of them didn’t get built. Great ambitions but foiled by expense in the end.
The Bank of England building we have nowadays is a mere shadow of Soanes original plans.
Umm – Lincoln’s Inn Fields, surely.
I’m late to the game on this post but I sure enjoyed it and wish I could go see it.
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