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 Sir John Soane's Museum

I lived in London for a year and a half in ages past and while all sorts of cultural and other institutions made up our schedule of weekend visits, Sir John Soane's Museum was not on the list - one I had never heard of. My ignorance was corrected from somewhere - almost certainly one source was reading about Belzoni and his removal of Pharoah Seti I's sarcophagus from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings and its arrival in the museum. Probably also through Country Life, I became aware of the nature of the museum and the presence there of two series of paintings by William Hogarth, A Rakes Progress and An Election, both often reproduced in books on British art. 

The Museum

A work visit in the 90's took me London and a spare day to the district - my mother collected Halcyon Days enameled boxes so I visited their outlet shop to buy her one before going on to the nearby Museum - 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP. The Halcyon Days shop is no longer there - now ensconced in Harrods. The Museum had a somewhat forbidding entrance and within one first met a warder - as I now discover is their title - in a frockcoat, like a West End doorman. He proved to be most welcoming and interested in where I was from and why I was visiting. I proceeded to tour the museum which is an early 19th C. collector's extravaganza, made special because Soane was a leading architect and adapted what was in large part his home to an exhibition space like no other in the world. It is an extreme example the sort of institution that preceded our modern museums.


I duly saw Seti's resting place (his mummy later went to the Royal Cache at Deir el-Bahari)  and the Hogarths. 



One set of Hogarths had challenged the lack of any extra wall space in the room by being swung on glazed hinged panels that one turned successively to see them. Astonishingly for such a prominent artist one did this for oneself - like being having free range in a gallery bulk storage. I gather it is no longer the case. A Hogarth cartoon, Gin Lane, had featured in one of my school history books so I had a long association.

One of A Rake's Progress

There seemed to be no one else visiting - though in the labyrinth of rooms several others could easily be concealed. Looking at reports, annual visitation then was well under 200,000 so two handfuls of visitors an hour might have got them there. Virtually nothing was labelled. I had formed the impression that most of the collection was architectural fragments and plaster casts to I did not give it much attention. Now having recently read Sir John Soane's Museum, A Complete Description I find that was a mischaracterisation - there is much more of merit if one knows where to look.  (The Description inspired this post).


John Flaxman was a friend of Soane and there is much by him. The local connection is that Flaxman did two depictions of James Cook for Wedgwood and Bentley cameo plaques. 

Flaxman's cameo of Cook. I own a bicentenary reproduction,
 supposedly from the original moulds. 

I am normally averse to guided tours - unengaged guides doing their spiel and visitors with incredibly dumb questions. Here though it would seem to be the best way into the collection. One was not offered to me then, but I gather they are a feature now. No internet then but now there is a great musuem website as a guide.

No shop then either - an extraordinary exception - I was on a museum board so sensitive to such details. I believe there is now. Back to the Description - the museum has undergone much restoration in recent decades, no doubt a challenging task, but one aided by many watercolours of the museum in its earlier stages.

Its free and unticketed - if you are there do go. Perhaps take the tour?

Homepage | Sir John Soane's Museum

Giovanni Belzoni - Wikipedia

Royal Cache - Wikipedia

Captain James Cook Through Stamps (lawas.co.nz)

Halcyon Days – Halcyon Days

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