Museum · England · Restored

Sir John Soane's Museum

Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum in Holborn, London, preserving the former home and collections of neo-classical architect Sir John Soane. The museum contains Soane's paintings, sculptures, antiquities, architectural drawings and models and is preserved largely as it was at his death. The house is open to the public in limited numbers and retains many specially lit and tightly arranged interior spaces.

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Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

First raised

1837

Its prime

1837

Today

Restored

As it stood in 1837

What Sir John Soane's Museum looked like in its prime.

A narrow, three-bay Portland stone façade projects from a plain brown brick town house: three tall, arched first-floor windows each with small balustraded terraces, a Greek-key frieze, two classical female statues flanking the upper parapet and a set-back attic of dark brick. The ground floor has three arched entrances behind a low wrought-iron fence; the pale stone contrasts with the darker brick above, and the whole elevation reads as an intimate, urban neoclassical townhouse.

Step inside

10 places to explore in 1837.

The record describes 10 distinct spots at Sir John Soane's Museum, including 9 interiors: ground-floor ante room, dome area above the seti sarcophagus, monument court (central courtyard) and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.

Exterior approach from Lincoln's Inn FieldsGround-floor ante roomDome area above the Seti sarcophagusMonument Court (central courtyard)Picture Room with movable planesBreakfast Room with domed mirrored ceilingLibrary-Dining Room (Pompeian red)Colonnade and museum corridor (top-lit)Top-lit drawing office / museum (former stable site)Monk's Yard (Gothic fragments)

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Whose seat

Families who held Sir John Soane's Museum.

The families tied to Sir John Soane's Museum across its history, follow a name to its page.

Soane
The architect John Soane's own house and collection, held and shaped by him from 1792 and sealed as a museum by his private Act of Parliament in 1833.

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