Sir John Soane, born in 1754, son of a bricklayer, must be one of England’s most important architects, but also one of its most over-looked. Long respected within the profession, I suspect his name will have little resonance with the general public. Extraordinarily innovative, his buildings had no one style or movement for people to label as “Soanian” or whatever. There were also not many of them and many have not survived. His most prestigious commission, the Bank of England, has been largely rebuilt, destroying most of Soane’s work. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, where he virtually invented the modern idea of a museum, is perhaps his best known surviving building, along with his own house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
The Lincoln’s Inn Fields House has, since his death in 1837, been open to the public, free of charge as a museum. In 1833, he had a private Act of Parliament passed leaving his home to the nation to be kept as it was at the time of his death. Which is fortunate for the public today, for his house was always more than a residence and constituted a workplace and depository for his extraordinary collection of paintings, sculpture and artefacts as well as a family home.
In the early C19, Soane bought three houses on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields and demolished and rebuilt all three – unthinkable now. The three rebuilt properties are startlingly different to the classic, uniform façade of the Georgian terrace within which they sit, yet nevertheless form a harmonious composition within the terrace. Nothing could better exemplify Soane’s approach to architecture, sympathetic to classical norms, but not hidebound by their rules.
Today, the properties house the Sir John Soane Museum and remain free of charge to the visitor as decreed by Soane himself. The visitor enters through the original entrance hall and then into the dining room and library, both spaces that Soane would use to entertain guests and potential clients. The more private breakfast room is one of the most celebrated spaces in the museum with its shallow dome, concealed skylights and views into adjacent spaces. The creation of internal space as a succession of linked rooms and vistas is one of the distinctive features of Soane’s architecture. There are then a succession of linked spaces – dome, colonnade, corridor – leading to the celebrated picture room containing, among others, important paintings by Canaletto and Hogarth. All these spaces are filled to the brim with artefacts and pictures, the picture room itself having a system of hinged “movable planes” (like cupboard doors) that can open to reveal more paintings. Designed by Soane himself, this ingenious system allows three times as many paintings to be displayed as otherwise would be the case.
The tour continues through other evocative spaces, the monument court, the monk’s parlour and the catacombs, again all filled to the brim with artefacts and curiosities, none more important than the sarcophagus of King Set I (1303-1290 BC). The tour then continues on to the more workmanlike kitchens and the domestic spaces used by Soane and his family, including the wonderful vaulted ceiling breakfast room. On the second floor, the Soanes’ family’s private rooms are located but may only be visited on a guided tour.
Another contender for oldgreytravel’s great small museums of the world, the Soane Museum may be located on one of the most prominent sites in London, but is still as little known and appreciated as the work of the architect himself.
The Sir John Soane Museum is located on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields and is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.00 – 17.00. Entry is free.
