We continue our look at the most amazing interiors in Britain with a tour of the unique, magical Sir John Soane’s Museum. The home of this genius of lighting and design was already one of London’s must-see ‘hidden gem’ attractions and has been recently restored to its original glory…
By Nigel Andrew
The most extraordinary and unexpected interior in London is surely that which lies behind the deceptively bland facades of numbers 12 to 14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Indeed, it’s safe to say that there is nothing like it anywhere in England, or beyond.
The facade of the Museum © Gareth Gardner
That address houses Sir John Soane’s Museum, once the residence, personal museum and library of the great architect who designed the old Bank of England buildings and the Dulwich Picture Gallery (itself London’s most extraordinary art gallery). An innovative and boldly original neo-classicist, Soane had rare architectural ingenuity and a wide-ranging imagination. He was forever exploring new ideas and seeking new inspiration – in sculpture and painting as well as in architecture – and his home was a kind of laboratory for his ideas. The collections he housed there – of antiquities, of architectural models, of pictures, of books, of sculptures – were carefully arranged by him as a series of ‘studies for my mind’ and as a lavish expression of his architectural imagination.
Portrait of Sir John Soane by Sir Thomas Lawrence
By an Act of Parliament, Soane left his home on Lincoln’s Inn Fields to the nation, to be preserved as a museum open to the public, insisting that it be kept ‘as nearly as possible to the state in which he shall leave it’. Happily, it is now closer to that state than it has been in a century and more. A major restoration of all three houses has undone later changes and opened up spaces that were part of the original plan but disappeared in the course of subsequent remodellings. The museum is once again as Soane intended it to be.
‘Getting lost is half the fun’
The first thing to be said about the interior of Sir John Soane’s Museum is that it is quite the most bewildering and disorienting domestic space you’re ever likely to come across – especially behind a Georgian town-house façade. I must have visited half a dozen times over the years, but once I am through that front door I have little idea where I am, and am constantly surprised by new vistas, by rooms appearing where I was least expecting them, or failing to appear where they should surely be. It’s quite incomprehensible. In keeping with the spirit of the place, the Museum keeps signposting to the minimum and leaves you free to wander – and get lost. It’s a good idea to arm yourself with a floor plan, but this only slightly raises your chances of getting around the place by any kind of logical route. By following the numbers on the plan, it’s theoretically possible to follow the route recommended by Soane himself – but, quite honestly, half the fun is getting lost and seeing what wonders will turn up next.‘Mind-boggling spaces’
Monks Parlour door with Bank models above, © Gareth Gardner
The fun starts in the basement – well, it can start anywhere, but the basement offers the most immediate insight into Soane’s teeming imagination, and the most mind-boggling succession of spaces, some of them decidedly tight and cramped. Every surface, horizontal or vertical, is covered with fragments from Gothic and classical antiquity, plaster casts and masks, busts and statuettes. If you think your house is cluttered, you’ll feel a whole lot better about it after a visit to Soane’s. Down at basement level is a Monk’s Parlour, an exercise in faux Gothic that is part satire and part advertisement for Soane’s versatility – got Gothic if you want it. There is also a Crypt, modelled on the Roman catacombs and containing a huge Egyptian sarcophagus, which Saone bought after the British Museum balked at the asking price (£2,000). The atmosphere is intended to be melancholy, romantic and slightly creepy, an effect Soane achieves by his endlessly ingenious manipulation of light and space.
‘A genius of lighting’
Light was an obsession of Soane’s (as it was of his friend, the painter J.M.W. Turner) and throughout the house the use of natural light, through cleverly designed light wells and top lighting, is quite brilliant, transforming what could have been a dark and narrow building into something luminous.
View looking along the Colonnade towards the Dome Area and the Apollo Recess. Photo: Gareth Gardner
In the basement, stained glass is used to give a suitably Gothic feel, but in the Colonnade that overlooks it the effect is of golden Mediterranean light, in keeping with the classical antiquities that line the gallery. This is achieved by a dome of coloured glass, which now bathes Soane’s prized statue of Apollo Belvedere in the golden light he intended (this is a legacy of the recent restoration).
The Breakfast Room. Photo © Derry Moore
The Breakfast Room. Photo © Derry Moore
More of Soane’s lighting genius can be seen in the Breakfast Room, adjacent to the Colonnade. The ceiling here is a ‘handkerchief dome’ – a Soane trademark that was later revived by Giles Gilbert Scott in designing London’s red phone boxes. In each of its corners is a light-intensifying convex mirror, with smaller convex mirrors lining the insides of the arches, and hidden skylights casting coloured light into the room, which is also lit by a window overlooking the Monument Court, a courtyard choc-a-block with monumental sculpture.
The Lobby to the Breakfast Room. Photo: Gareth Gardner
Mirrors are used to brilliant effect, enhancing the light and apparently enlarging the space, in other rooms, notably the grand Dining Room and Library, which is painted in a rich Pompeian red.
The Library Dining Room © Gareth Gardner
A sunny yellow is the favoured colour for the elegant Drawing Room and for the Dressing Room, another small space cleverly lit from above.
The South Drawing Room © Gareth Gardner
And I still haven’t mentioned the paintings, most of which are housed in Soane’s specially built Picture Room, where the majority are hung not on the walls but on a cleverly designed system of hinged screens (Soane called them ‘movable planes’) which can be opened up to display the paintings, then folded away again. Among the collection are two famous Hogarth series, A Rake’s Progress and The Election, and three top-notch Canalettos.
Picture Room Recess © Derry Moore
‘A treasure house’
The Soane museum is truly a treasure house – not only for its contents but for the unique access it affords to the teeming mind and imagination of a great architect. It is a magical space. As Isaac d’Israeli (father of Benjamin Disraeli) wrote to Soane, ‘Some in Poems have raised fine architectural Edifices, but most rare have been those who have discovered when they had finished their House, if such a House can ever be said to be finished, that had built a Poem.’ Finally, I must put in a word for the museum attendants who are stationed in each room. Friendly and helpful (without being pushy), they really know their stuff, and can answer any questions you might have about the house. They can even tell you how to get to where you want to go – though you’ll probably get lost again along the way.
Sir John Soane’s Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm (last entry 4.30pm). Evening opening, by candlelight, on the first Tuesday of every month, 6pm to 9pm (arrive early, as this is a very popular event and capacity is limited).
