Sir John Soane’s Museum: A unique Treasure Trove

Places like Sir John Soane’s Museum make me so grateful to live in London, with so much incredible history on our doorstep. 

To describe it as a hidden gem would be disingenuous really, because it is well known, and there is almost always a queue of visitors waiting outside. It is, however, undoubtedly a gem, a glittering historic jewel. It is a house unlike any other in London, filled with fascinating objects, ingenious design and countless surprises.

Who Is Sir John Soane? 

John Soane was born on 10th September 1753, in Goring-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. He was, by the way, born John ‘Soan’ and added the ‘e’ in 1784 when he married Elizabeth Smith, to give it a more distinguished feel. 

His circumstances were relatively modest, he was the son of a local bricklayer and builder. After attending a private school in Reading, at the age of fifteen, began training as an architect under George Dance the Younger (who designed Newgate Prison, the entranceway to Guildhall, All Hallows on the Wall church) and later Henry Holland (Carlton House, Brooks Club, Drury Lane Theatre). 

From 1778-1780 he embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe. His travels to the ruins of Ancient Rome, Pompeii and Sicily would inspire his lifelong interest in Classical art and architecture and inform his neo-classical style. 

Soane rose, through talent and determination, to become Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy and one of the most celebrated architects in British history. 

He would go on to design the Bank of England (most of which was sadly demolished in the 1930s and rebuilt), Dulwich Picture Gallery, Pitzhangar Manor, parts of Royal Hospital Chelsea and his home on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, now home to the museum. 

Soane was also a prodigious collector, amassing a huge array of paintings, sculptures, architectural fragments, drawings and antiquities. 

Settling On Lincoln’s Inn Fields

Soane purchased 12 Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1792. He swiftly demolished the building, rebuilt and redesigned it as his home, office and to house his collection. 

As his success grew, so did his collection. He ended up buying up the adjoining number 13 in 1807 and then 14 in 1823. 

It was not just a vanity project, hidden away behind a closed door, he envisaged it from the beginning as a living museum and source of inspiration for his students and others. 

The Country’s Smallest National Museum

In 1833 Soane, now coming into his 80s, took an extraordinary measure. He negotiated a private Act of Parliament to ensure that after he died his house would be preserved in perpetuity and kept open to the public for free to inspire curiosity and educate. His son, George Soane, as I am sure you can imagine was not wildly happy about losing his inheritance. He pushed MP William Cobbett to help him stop the bill, but failed. 

Sir John Soane died on the 20th January 1837 and a Board of Trustees took over the management of the house and museum. Due to being established by an Act of Parliament, it is, in fact, the country’s smallest nationally funded museum and contains over 50,000 objects from across millenia. 

What To Look Out For

The museum is free to look around. They do however also run regular brilliant paid Highlights tours, to point out the overlooked details, secrets and stories of the artefacts, to really get the most out of your visit.

Every nook and cranny has something to draw the eye and intrigue the mind. Make sure to take your time and take in the details.

The Exterior

It is worth spending a moment admiring the facade of the house. 

Unlike the flat, brick Georgian terraced houses either side, number 13 features a projecting Portland stone facade. It immediately announces itself as unusual, a taste of what is to come. This also creates a deeply recessed doorway, which feels almost like you are walking through a dark gateway into another world.

Soane originally designed the first and second floors as open loggias or balconies, but later glazed the arches to protect his collection.

There are classical panels and sculptures, but also some more subtle gothic or medieval-style elements. These include the pointed arch doorway and details inspired by gothic window tracery around the entrance.

The Picture Room

The Picture Room was designed by Soane from 1823-24. It is a top lit cube packed with masterpieces by JMW Turner, Canaletto and William Hogarth. 

The room itself is ingenious though because he utilised double-layered folding walls to maximise usable space for paintings. The walls hinge open to reveal more paintings behind, not only once but twice. There are 118 paintings in a small 13 by 12 foot room.

William Hogarth is possibly best remembered for his satirical ‘progresses’. Only four sets of the original oil paintings survive and two of those sets are in the collection of the museum. They have the original oil paintings for A Rake’s Progress (1734) and The Humours of An Election (1754). 

There are also various paintings and drawings of Soane’s works, both realised and unrealised. Below for example is a watercolour by Soane’s draftsman Joseph Michael Gandy of an unbuilt scheme for a spectacular gateway at Hyde Park Corner, to serve as a grand ceremonial entranceway into London.

Behind the third layer on one side is the Picture Room Recess, a space that holds other casts, objects, models and paintings. 

The panels are opened by staff members at certain times; 

2pm: A Rake’s Progress (north wall)

11am, 3pm and 4pm: Picture Room Recess (south wall)

The Dome Area

The central dome area was created in 1807 and became the heart of the collection. The glass dome ceiling brings daylight right into the core of the building with mirrors and pale colours making the space feel a lot larger than it actually is. It gives a great sense of how Soane created framed views throughout the house with arches, openings and symmetry. 

The artefacts are a display from across eras and styles, a cornucopia of architectural and design ideas that Soane admired. Some are ancient and some are more modern casts. 

Presiding over it is a bust of Soane himself by his friend Francis Chantrey.

He began sitting for the bust in 1827. Chantry asked Soane to come for a sitting he said ‘to bring your head with you’.

The largest item is a free standing plaster cast of the celebrated white marble statue known as the Apollo Belvedere, depicting the Greek god Apollo. 

An Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus

From here you can also look down into the ‘Sepulchral Chamber’ where you will see a genuine Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. 

The alabaster sarcophagus belonged to Seti I, who ruled Egypt from around 1294 to 1279 BC and was the father of the better-known pharaoh Ramesses II. It was discovered in 1817 in the Valley of the Kings by the explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni. 

Belzoni hoped that the British Museum would purchase the sarcophagus, but they declined, apparently considering the asking price too high. Soane, however, immediately recognised its importance. In 1824, he purchased it for £2,000, a huge sum at the time, and had it brought back to London and created a specially designed space for it.

It is worth adding that although many of Belzoni’s discoveries were groundbreaking, his methods are often viewed critically by modern archaeology for their emphasis on collecting and removing artefacts rather than careful scientific excavation.

The arrival of the sarcophagus caused a sensation. Soane celebrated by hosting a spectacular three-day public exhibition and candlelit party at his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Around 890 guests attended, including leading artists, writers and members of London’s intellectual elite.

The Ingenious Breakfast Room

The Breakfast Room, as the name suggests, was a room for everyday domestic life for him and his wife Eliza. It would not ordinarily be a very light room, but again Soane used it as an opportunity to experiment. 

Dotted around the room are over 100 strategically placed mirrors to reflect any daylight or candlelight. They are particularly across the shallow dome that forms the ceiling, again making it look larger than it actually is. 

There is also so much more to feast your eyes on in the house than can be covered in this post. 

Visiting Sir John Soane’s Museum

The museum is open Wednesday to Sunday 10am-5pm (last entry at 4.30pm). 

Capacity to the house is carefully managed, so there is often a queue outside to go in. 

Highlights tours last 60 minutes and take place everyday at 12pm. There is an additional tour at 10am on Fridays, and 11am on Saturdays and Sundays. The tour costs £25. 

It also looks like that from the 1st August 2026, Highlights tours will run at 10am and 12pm, Wednesday to Sunday.

Find out more on their page here. 

Thank you for reading, more of London’s incredible historic gems below…