8 Must-See Highlights From London’s Soane Museum

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) is remembered as the Regency period architect of the Bank of England, a pioneer of the Neoclassical style, and an avid Regency Period collector. What sets his house and collection apart is that he lived in his home among his treasures. His collection is diverse yet unusual in its breadth and diversity. His focus was often on architectural objects — capitals of columns and sculptures form the bulk of the collection. But you’ll also find paintings, bronzes, porcelain, manuscripts, and miniature architectural models in this vast collection. Today, his home is a museum with no entry fees, as stipulated in his will.

At the heart of Soane’s teaching method was his belief in using models of architectural designs to help him and his students envisage a project.

The Model Room started in Eliza Soane’s bedroom, which John kept as-is for 19 years after she died. Between 1834 and 1835, he converted the bedroom into the Model Room. After Soane died in 1837, the room became an office until a significant restoration project restored it to its former glory in 2015.

Room Highlight: Model of Pompeii in 1820

The model is made from solid and veneer cork to mimic the texture of weathered stone, a technique that has been practiced since the 16th century. The model is attributed to Neapolitan maker Domenico Padiglione. Soane bought the model in 1826 at an auction through Christie’s and commissioned a two-tier stand to hold it along with his other models of ancient sites in his vast collection of around 120 pieces.

2. The South Drawing Room 

The South Drawing Room provides an entirely different picture of how rooms were furnished in the Regency Period. The sulfurous yellow walls were painted in “Turner’s Patent Yellow” while the room was sparsely furnished. Family portraits of Soane and his two sons by William Owen flank the fireplace. A pencil sketch of Mrs. Eliza Soane by John Flaxman is also present. The Soanes used the room as their primary reception, and Mrs. Soane would host musical soirees in the room, too.

Unfortunately, the two Soane heirs did not follow their father’s work ethic or passion for architecture. One was a lazy layabout, and the other a gambler and swindler. Soane bemoaned his lot and his son’s lack of interest or passion to make something of themselves.

In 1833, Soane negotiated a private Act of Parliament to preserve the house and collection upon his death. The proviso was that it was a gift to the nation and was to be kept as was when he died. On his death in January 1837, a Board of Trustees took over. To this day, Soane’s directive is followed to the letter by conservators — none of the exhibits are labeled, the house remains as it was when he died, and entry is always free.

Soane used his house as an experimental space to try out new ideas, and light occupied a lot of Soane’s thinking about architecture:

“This compressed, landlocked space is lit by the ingenious combination of a small lantern placed, in the canopy of the vaulted ceiling, directly above the breakfast table and two linear lights, glazed with yellow tinted glass, that wash the yellow painted north and south walls. The effect of these is softened by sidelight that enters through the window that overlooks the Monument Yard, the east light of morning appropriately illuminating breakfast. Convex mirrors occupy the four corners of the ceiling vault and bring further complexity to the light by inter-reflection. Further mirrors are laid into the decoration and furniture and add yet more visual detail” (Hawkes, 2007:28).

Room Highlight: Angelo Campanella’s Colored Engraving From the Villa Negroni

The set of seven colored frescoes hang in the Breakfast Room. They depict scenes from the excavated Villa Negroni in Rome, which was excavated when Soane visited the city between 1778 and 1780. Of particular note is the red color, or “Pompeian Red,” which would later inspire the color scheme in the Library/Dining Room.

4. Pharaoh Seti I’s Sarcophagus 

In the Sepulchral Chamber lies one of Soane’s most prized (and expensive) acquisitions: the large sarcophagus that housed Pharaoh Seti I’s (d. 1279 BCE) coffin and mummy. Seti I ruled Egypt when it was a significant military power. His son, Ramesses II, followed in his father’s footsteps with his victories over the Hittite Empire.

Italian explorer-Egyptologist, Giovanni Belzoni, discovered the sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings in 1817. Soane bought it for the handsome sum of £2,000 in 1824 when the British Museum declined the artifact. He installed it on four fluted stone columns. To celebrate his latest acquisition, he hosted a three-evening party attended by almost 900 guests.

Inscriptions on the inside and outside feature scenes from the Book of Gates. This book charts the soul’s journey through twelve gates where each is guarded by a warder and snakes. Each gate corresponds to the twelve hours of the night.

5. The Dome Area

When you look up from Seti I’s sarcophagus in the Sepulchral Room, you’re looking up into a full-length display where Soane placed his choicest antiquities. A bust of Soane, by Sir Francis Chantrey, takes center stage upon a giant marble lion’s paw.

Cinerary urns, smaller busts, and statues form the first layer of antiquities. On the opposite side is a lifesize cast of the Greek god Apollo. Smaller casts are fastened to the railing via protruding brackets; others are attached to the walls layer upon layer. Plaster casts share the same space as actual marble carvings. Soane valued the assembly for its architectural reference and inspiration to use as ornamentation in buildings.

Soane saw this statue during his Grand Tour in the 1770s and again in 1814 at the Louvre in Paris after Napoleon seized it after his Italian campaign, where it was displayed from 1798. The original Apollo Belvedere is currently in the Vatican’s Pio-Clementine Museum after being repatriated to Italy.

The cast of the Apollo Belvedere in the Soane Museum is a reproduction of a Roman copy. An artisan made the copy in the second century CE after a lost Greek bronze original created by the sculptor Leochares between 350 and 325 BCE. Rediscovered during the Renaissance, it was displayed in the garden of Giuliano della Rovere. Later, Pope Julius II moved it to the Vatican.

Soane’s full-size cast, made around 1819 in Rome, was a gift from John White, who received it from the Duke of Devonshire. Valuing it highly, Soane took down part of an external wall to place it in his London home. The cast includes additions made during a 1530s restoration and it was situated on a circular marble base with symbols, now used as part of a pasticcio column in the museum’s central courtyard. At the time of Soane’s death, it stood against a backdrop of bookcases. Below the statue’s base is a small table that could be pulled out when one was perusing the books behind Apollo in the recess.

6. The Drawing Office

Soane worked from home and started his architectural practice in 1780. His first pupil, John Sanders, joined him the same year Soane married his wife, Eliza, in 1784. As time progressed, he employed more pupils and senior clerks. At the height of productivity, six pupils worked in the Drawing Office for twelve hours a day, six days a week. Soane retired from practice in 1833 but retained the talented draftsmen George Bailey and James Richardson until he died in 1837.

Upon his death, the office was turned into a storage space in one form or another. Up until the 2010s, it remained as such. The Opening the Soane project blew new life into the Drawing Office and it was restored and finally opened to the public in 2023.

The Picture Room is filled with natural light from above via the ceiling that evokes a 17th-century interior. Soane described this design feature as “arched canopies.” Soane designed the room in 1823-24, reflecting a twofold attempt to merge Classical and Gothic styles in a single architectural language. Gothic elements are found in the arched canopies, the solid oak floor with a mahogany border, dwarf mahogany bookcases with ebony inlays, and the elaborate brass columns. The Classical elements attempt to balance each wall into a symmetrical mirror image.

Apart from natural light filling the space, it is also filled with oil paintings, watercolors, and sketches. Most artworks in the room are replicas, and the originals are stored safely to protect them against light and air exposure. The room holds 118 paintings — almost five times as many as the National Gallery, which started with 38 paintings in 1824. Tour guides open the hinged panels to reveal the paintings within.

Room Highlight: Canaletto Paintings

Three Canaletto paintings are featured above the fireplace: View of Venice, The Riva Degi Schiavoni, Looking West (pictured above), and The Piazzo di San Marco, Venice (ca. 1734-35). Other notable works include the paintings of William Hogarth’s (1697-1764) A Rake’s Progress and J.M.W. Turner’s St Hughes Denouncing Vengeance on the Shepherd of Cormayer (1802-1803). The latter is only available to view during a pre-booked tour, and the former is available by prior arrangement or on some of the pre-booked tours.

8. The Library-Dining Room

The Dining Room-Library is the largest room in the house and the one in which Soane would entertain guests. The walls are lined with glass-fronted bookcases and are primarily filled with numerous books on architecture but also books on cooking, travel guides, auction guides, and novels. Ancient Greek, labeled “Etruscan vases,” are placed on the bookcases.

Mirrors are used in various ways to channel light into the large room: they are positioned above the bookcases and fireplaces and on the shutter boxes. Some mirrors are placed in niches to further enhance the light in the room.

The room is painted in Pompeiian red — one of Soane’s preferred colors. The propensity for the color probably stems from his visits to Pompeii in 1779 (and the excavations at Villa Negroni in Rome, which he witnessed in 1778). The red coloration is further echoed in the furniture, which is made mainly of mahogany; Soane designed some of the furniture pieces. The pair of Chinese chairs are made of padauk — an oriental rosewood. Wine-red, leather upholstered chairs echo the red color scheme in a different shade. Like the Southern Drawing Room, the room represents the restrained decorating style from the Regency Period.