At the architect's

A couple of days after I went to Kew I booked myself a morning slot at the Sir John Soane Museum (peeps, I’m a bit tired when typing this, so do click on the museum link for the history of Sir John Soane, it’s really interesting, but rather than me rehashing the text into this blogpost you’ll get it straight from the horse’s mouth). I went there over a decade ago with my mum, and I’ve been meaning to go back ever since, but I’m so glad I didn’t get round to it until now. This time I appreciated going there for so many reasons, the main one being that I’m seriously getting into historical houses. The Regency era architect owned and built all three buildings seen here, with the museum being mainly in the middle one at no. 12.

Some of the museum spills over into No. 14, which just looks so damn good with that green door and the darker window frames, don’t you think? Also, this house was built with white bricks. Must’ve looked very different back in the day. I quite like the dirty facade and I’m sure it wouldn’t look as nice all cleaned up.

There is of course now a one way system though the museum, so the first room you enter is the dining room that extends into the library where I stood taking this picture.

Right here in fact. It wasn't this light in this section (I over exposed quite a bit here), but much darker and really cosy.

Like this.

And this. I’d love to have the guts do a whole room in dark red. I just had a look around me in the study where I’m sitting right now thinking ‘Oooooooooh!’, but we had wallpaper put up in here when we moved in eight years ago, so that’s a hard no. Plus I still like the wallpaper. 🙄

In case you wonder which way you're facing.

I continued into The Breakfast Parlour where a guide told me about the room, which in turn led me to not taking many pictures in here, as I couldn’t just ask him to move out of the way. All I can say is that putting yellow glass in the skylights makes for a very cheery little room.

Soane put the yellow glass in so that you could see the details in the reliefs better.

Ok fine, I’ll give you a bit of a background so those of you who didn't click through earlier know what this place is. Basically Soane (1753-1837) became a renowned architect and Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, and was fortunate enough to be able to take a Grand Tour of Europe (paid for by King George III - who incidentally lived in Kew Palace in my previous post). He was a great collector who also had the astuteness to pick up lots of objects in house clearances from other collectors who had gotten into debt gambling. Like an eBay pro of sorts. The idea was to house all these artefacts in a museum so his students, who were not able to travel around Europe, would be able to see close hand what treasures and styles existed out there. He also stipulated that after his death the museum was to remain open free of charge in all perpetuity.

I guess you could say that he was a bit of a hoarder, a hoarder with exceptional taste. He placed everything so that it all looked both good together and within the space. Maybe seeing all of this stuff is making me feel better about all the stuff in our house…

Terry, the guide sitting down here, told me all sorts of interesting facts about Soane and the museum. So grateful for people like him sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm, and who don’t mind having to repeat themselves day after day.

Looking at this picture now, I’m very confused as to what exactly this nude lady is standing next to. You see it, right?! I have to go back again and have proper look (I actually want to go back again sans camera so I can really pay attention). I mean, maaaaaaybe it’s just an exotic mushroom? I didn’t even see it when I took it. If I had I would’ve asked Terry.

‘Who’s got the remote?’ Ah, this guy. Go on then, turn the telly on.

Looking back through the study, which is sealed off for now, and into the dining room.

More yellow skylights.

Who dat?!

Downstairs in the basement is the Monk’s Parlour. You can’t go in there so I took this through the glass door. If this was my house this is where I’d take my afternoon cuppa, with a book and a fire on the go.

In the crypt looking back towards the stairs I came down. The Monk’s Parlour is through the opening just to the right. I didn’t take many pictures in here as it was so dark, and weirdly I took no pictures of the sarcophagus that sits proudly in the middle of the crypt. Sometimes I surprise myself with how I take pictures, but I guess that I take them according to what I think looks good or interesting, and that I’m not trying to tell an exact story. I basically don’t think when I take them, haha.

Anyway, I digress. From the crypt you can look back up into the Dome, which is the oldest part of the museum, built in 1808-9, as a model/plaster room.

You can see more clearly how the different floors connect in this watercolour from 1811 (click on the zoom icon and you’ll see it larger). Such an amazing space. It’s so amazing that I’m going to have to show the rest in my next post, because this here is plenty enough for one 😅