#johnsoanemuseum

The Hunterian Museum and the Sir John Soane Museum. Two weird little free museums, facing each other on Lincoln's Inn Field. I had not a notion who Sir John Soane was but went there first because of all the amazing things I had heard about his house-turned-museum. Apparently he was a famous English architect from the 18th and 19th century, whose most influential work (The Bank of England) has been largely obliterated.

His biggest legacy is now his house, which was once three houses. Over many years he demolished and completely reconstructed the interiors to his own grand design. This labour of love was made into a museum in his lifetime, in a nasty move in which he actually began a parliamentary campaign so as to disinherit his son George. George sounds like a lairy writer type who ran up loads of debt. The other son was sickly and not making the cut. So the government kindly assisted Soane in allowing him to donate his house and everything in it, and created the museum, which today is also a national centre for the study of architecture.

It's probably one of the best free museums I've been to. I got really excited about the Geoffrey Museum down the road from me but then it turned out to be just a lot of different couches and stuff. John Soane however, did not disappoint; the sheer grandeur of the place is worth going for. Tonnes of absolutely opulent rooms, but every inch covered with fine art. Imagine the kind of people who have a 'breakfast room' and really high glass-domed ceilings, except they also have the desire and ability to completely gut and rebuild their house to their own architectural specifications. You walk around, scared to knock something over with your elbow and struggling to fit down the passageways. They can only let 80 people into the entire museum at one time.

Understand that the house is not small, just absolutely crawling with oddities from all around the world. The sheer quantity of THINGS is unbelievable. The nice security man told me that because Soane taught architecture in a time of war, many of his students were unable to leave the country and truly experience the architectural offerings of Europe and beyond. So he brought everything, everything, back to London. Life-size Roman figures, Turner paintings, and of course the famous sarcophagus of Seti I, which is covered in hieroglyphics. Yup, that's just a massive Egyptian pharaoh's sarcophagus in the middle of the room, Ramesses' son or what have you. A steal for Sloane at 2000 quid back in the day.

I was impressed. It's aesthetically a wonder but also a really interesting museum. Though I am the kind of person who finds the history of the place more intriguing than the 30,000 architectural drawings that are there upstairs somewhere. Go to this place and then go to the astounding Hunterian Museum across the lawn too. But eat first. Because it was really strange being starving hungry in a medical museum surrounded by tumours and fetuses in jars.