I went to Sir John Soan’s Museum yesterday with Tim and his dad.
Soane designed this house to live in, but also as a setting for his antiquities and his works of art. After the death of his wife (1815), he lived here alone, constantly adding to and rearranging his collections. Having been deeply disappointed by the conduct of his two sons, one of whom survived him, he determined to establish the house as a museum to which ‘amateurs and students’ should have access.
The description on the website does not do justice to this amazing place, jam-packed with antiques, marble, and weirdly, mirrors. John Soan was an architect, and his eccentric, hodge-podge of a house shows off his obsession with space, light, mirrors and, well, marble.
What MADE the trip was the MP3 audio tour we downloaded before going. Huge props to Tim for hooking us up with this. The museum would have been overwhelming without it (”wow, lots of stuff, and I have no idea what I’m looking at”). The audio tour was ace. And like most museums in London, this one was free. I’ll definitely be going back.
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