We took our clients to the Sir John Soane’s Museum...

Inspired by Sir John Soane’s Museum, one of the world’s great architectural laboratories, some pop-up exhibition presents work by artiest from the Architectural Association speculating on the future of architecture education.
Some projects offer proposals for new architectural academies around London.

Following Soane’s description of his house-museum as an ‘academy of architecture’, the designs include spaces for discourse and debate, exhibition space and a private residence. Each project responds in its own way to the question: how can the architecture academy of the future act to engage the city and allow the city to influence pedagogy?

Private Apartments Tour will transport visitors back to Regency London, taking people through Sir John Soane’s extraordinary home, left as it was at the time of his death in 1837.

Explore some of the most spectacular rooms in the Museum, and their most famous and beautiful treasures, including paintings by Canaletto and J.M.W. Turner, a 3,000 year-old Egyptian sarcophagus, and the unfolding walls of the Picture Room.

"One of the world’s most sumptuous architectural treats”
- Jay Merrick, Independent

The Museum is at its most awe-inspiring after dark, its vast, eclectic collections lit spectacularly by spotlights.At 'spotlight talks' around the Museum, the expert guides will shed further light on this intriguing place as they present pop-up talks on their favourite artefacts, works of art and stories. People will explore and soak up the atmosphere within the amazing space.

Sir John Soane was one of the foremost architects of the Regency era, a Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, and a dedicated collector of paintings, sculpture, architectural fragments and models, books, drawings and furniture.

Born in 1753, the fourth son of a bricklayer, his father’s professional links with architects and his own natural talent for drawing won him the opportunity to train as an architect. A talented and hard-working student, Soane was awarded the Royal Academy’s prestigious Gold Medal for Architecture, as a result receiving a bursary (funded by King George III) to undertake a Grand Tour of Europe. His travels to the ruins of Ancient Rome, Paestum and Pompeii would inspire his lifelong interest in Classical art and architecture.

Soane’s inventive use of light, space and his experimentation with the forms of Classical architecture earned him great success as an architect. During his career he won numerous high-profile projects, including the Bank of England (where he was architect for 45 years) and Dulwich Picture Gallery, and created his own extraordinary home and Museum on Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Sir John Soane’s successes as an architect and his fascination with the history of architecture let to his appointment as Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy in 1806. Already an enthusiastic collector, he began to repurpose his home at Lincoln’s Inn Fields as a Museum for students of architecture.

Today, Sir John Soane’s Museum occupies three buildings, Nos 12, 13, and 14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Sir John Soane acquired and rebuilt each of these buildings during his lifetime.

With a collection containing thousands of objects ranging from Ancient Egyptian antiquities and Roman sculpture to models of contemporary buildings, Soane’s house had become a Museum by the time of his death. He acquired some spectacular items, including the sarcophagus of the Egyptian pharaoh, Seti I.

More than 180 years ago, distinguished architect Sir John Soane had a vision: to create a place where curious minds could be inspired, for free. He wanted his incredible collection of art and artefacts to enrich people’s lives. Today Soane’s Museum upholds that vision, welcoming more people than ever before.

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