London: Soan Museum
 

Several folks mentioned this place in answer to some of my previous posts. Looks interesting. Any rants or raves?

Is the basic info below still correct?

The Soane Museum is one of the most remarkable and densely-packed exhibitions of antiques and curios to be found anywhere in London.

Paintings, gems, bronzes, manuscripts and marbles litter the rooms, halls and stairways of this lovely 18th century town house, which is tucked away in a quiet square between High Holborn and Fleet Street.

It is a monument to Sir John Soan's obsession with art and architecture. From Canaletto's sparkling view of the Grand Canal in Venice to the alabaster coffin of Pharaoh Seti I, nothing of beauty or antiquity escaped Sir John's notice. Every possible corner is crammed with 'finds' that he couldn't resist, snapped up in the sales rooms or imported from far off lands.

The Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday but not on Bank Holidays. Entrance is free, although visitors are requested to make a donation.

Also open on the first Tuesday evening of each month, 6-9pm when parts of the Museum are lit with candles. There is a Museum tour each Saturday at 2.30pm; tickets are on sale from 2.00pm and cost £3.

Nearest tube: Holborn (Central & Piccadilly lines).

Address: 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields

I've been there - it is delightful and FREE! Sir John Soane loved collecting and creating optical illusions.

I would also recommend The Wallace Collection - another small museum in a beautiful home. The courtyard portion of the museum has been covered with a glass roof and the restaurant is a lovely place to have lunch.

Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite places in London (next to the War Cabinet rooms) - it is just fantastic and well worth a visit.

I have also been to Sir John Soan's Museum and I can tell you it may be hard to find during the rain. Maybe it was just me, but that was the only place in all of London I had a hard time finding. Plus it was raining that day, one of the only days of rain we had the month we were in London. Once found it was very interesting, but jam packed with stuff.

Not only is is a wonderful place - it is in a really GREAT area for walking. Nearby are the Inns of Court, the Temple and Temple Church (a round church), the Royal Courts and Chancery Lane.

I second (and third, fourth, and fifth) the above endorsements. The only caveat I'd add is, be sure to bring along a guide book that provides some detail about the contents of the museum, or you won't have any idea what you're looking at. As the information you quoted from says, the place is "densely-packed" and "crammed," which means there isn't any room for wall plaques explaining what all the stuff is. If you don't have such a guidebook, then at least invest in the brochure that you can buy from the museum (I think it costs one pound), which provides some information about the collection, and suggests a route to follow as you go through the museum.

Also, in the room with the Hogarth paintings, don't just look at the Hogarths and then walk out thinking you've seen everything there is to see in that room. There are other paintings behind the Hogarths, which can be viewed if the museum employee who's usually stationed in that room pulls out the first layer of paintings to reveal the paintings behind them. When I was there recently, the museum employee was very happy to be asked to do that, and to discuss the paintings with anyone who was interested.

Degas
Thumbs up....loved it....??
Too bad we won't be in London at the same time....you don't want to hang around for a few more weeks til I get there??

Thanks for all the inputs. Its going on my list. And I will act "in the know" and get the museum staff to roll back the pictures and provide insightful comments.

It took me 10 or so trips to London to get here. I'm glad I did but it wouldn't move into the top dozen.

I realize that Soane's wouldn't be in everyone's Top Ten, but it's in mine. I love "museums" that are preserved real places, and the quirkier the better. That's why my favorites in London include the Cabinet War Rooms and the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret.

Somehow the National Portrait Gallery feels like it belongs in this group, I guess because the older portraits were indeed produced to serve as historic documentation.

The Soane Museum is not everyone's cup of tea, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. It is an electic personal collection housed in a residence. It is particularly interesting to anyone interested in architecture and architectual detail. While admission is free, you will not regret making a small donation. It is well worth it.