Sir John Soane’s Museum

Facts and information

Address:: Sir John Soane’s Museum, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn,
London WC2A 3BP
England
Website:: www.soane.org
Opening times:: 10 AM to 5 PM (Tue–Sat), and 6 PM to 9 PM (first Tue of month); Last admission 4.30 PM; Note: Opening times are subject to change, and may not apply on public holidays. Always reconfirm with the venue before making plans.
Cost:: Free
Telephone:: Work +44 (0) 207 405 2107
Buses:: 1 6 8 9 13 19 25 38 55 59 68 87 91 98 168 172 189 243 253 521 X68
Trains:: Chancery Lane CNT, Covent Garden PCL, Holborn CNT PCL, Temple CRC DSC Note: The nearest train station to Sir John Soane’s Museum is Holborn. We can help you find the best route from any other train station:
Train journey to Sir John Soane’s Museum

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Sir John Soane’s Museum was a gift from the 19th-century architect. As well as designing some of London’s most important buildings (like the Bank of England), Sir John Soane’s passion for collecting rare memorabilia resulted in a hotchpotch of objects from all around the world – books, paintings, sculptures and ceramics all fight for space amongst his skeletons and ancient Egyptian sarcophagi.

The ramshackle nature of his home makes it one of the most intriguing museums in London. You can walk through his dining room, library, study and hall – all crammed with every kind of historical knick-knack.

Exhibits at Sir John Soane’s Museum

The cast collection is a worthy sideshow to one in the V&A. It contains casts of famous statues, sculptures and celebrity death masks.

The museum’s most celebrated object takes pride of place in the atmospheric crypt – the sarcophagus of Seti I. This dates from around 1370 BC and is one of the most important funerary objects outside of Egypt.

The Picture Room contains works by Canaletto, J W Turner, and William Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress – cartoon caricatures of London’s drunken scum. Famous architects get an airing with the private papers of Robert Adam, and Christopher Wren’s pocket watch.

Other eclectic items include Napoleon Bonaparte’s pistols, and a 13th-century Bible.

>> Drummerboy’s blog – Sir John Soane’s Museum

Drummerboy – “Word of advice: If you see some people milling around outside don’t walk through the door, or an old bloke will lambast you for not queuing. This must be the only museum in London where you have to queue up for 10 minutes before they even let you through the front door. Lots of people fell foul of that rule whilst I was waiting, but once you get inside you realise why they do it. The house is so small and pokey that they can only fit about 50 people in it. So until some people come out and leave, you can’t get in. It’s like one of those multi-storey car-parks, where you have to wait for a space to become available before they let your car past the barrier… continued.”