MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM...

This was another weird and wonderful find, situated at numbers 12, 13 and 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, London.

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was a neo-classical architect, responsible for such imposing buildings as the Bank of England and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, as well as remodelling his three houses and turning them into a co-joining, living museum.  He both resided and worked here, as well as using the space to display his significant and ever-growing collection of unusual artefacts.

Incidentally, he is buried- along with his wife, Elizabeth, and John, his eldest son- in the graveyard of St. Pancras Old Church, Camden, home to The Hardy Tree.  I have also blogged about this place. 

Here is the wondrous Hardy Tree...

Here is the Soane family tomb...

Back to the museum; and the collection is both bizarre and spectacular, including many busts, gargoyles and even the sarcophagus of Egyptian King, Seti I, who was thought to rule from around 1290 or 1294 to 1279 BC.

Before he died, Soane negotiated an Act of Parliament, which allowed his collection to be preserved in exactly the same way it had been displayed in his lifetime.

It was a lovely warm Saturday morning when I entered the museum at not long after 10am.  There was no queue, but several people milling around inside.
  We had to put our bags into plastic bags, to prevent any accidental knocking of the artefacts, which is fine by me. 
I also had to relinquish my drink to the entrance desk, to pick up on the way out, which is also okay.
But, photography was not allowed!  This really annoys me!  I can understand flash photography being banned, as it might irritate other visitors but COME ON, people like to record their days out.  I don't understand why some museums and attractions are so precious about this.

Here's the outside of the museum...

I would have loved to have bought a guidebook, as the items on show are not labelled- as per the instructions of Sir John Soane- but, crowded around the desk was a guide describing the house to two French tourists (I was quite impressed that my pidgin French was able to pick up what she was saying!)  Now, I'm all for bi/multilingual guides, but this bird was sooooo loud that I'm sure she could have been heard over in Paris!  As the volume was too high, I moved on, through the kitchen and on to the crypt.

Here are some PDFs of what I saw.  Statues and part-statues, urns and gargoyles abound...

This place was like a labyrinth with elements of halls of mirrors, and you kept walking back on yourself.  It is very important to look up and down, as all the levels are interlinked and you can get a different view of something you walked past five minutes ago.

Here is a fig leaf man...

Looking up from this point...

Whilst walking through this structured maze, I kept coming eyeball to eye hole with a skull on a shelf.  I wish I'd had the guidebook to look up who he/ she was, as I can find no details of the skull online and the way I kept ending up next to the skull was disconcerting, to say the least.

Here is the sarcophagus of the Egyptian pharaoh, Seti I. 

I have to say, I perhaps rushed this section as some fat arsed, pot bellied cow (no, I wasn't looking in the mirror) behind me kept pulling snot through her pipe and sounded like she was about to hawk onto the floor.  As I didn't fancy catching pleurisy or tuberculosis I moved quickly on.

Here is Seti I, looking down from the next level...

The Monk's Parlour was freaky, with stained glass windows and gargoyles standing sentinel on the wall.  Here is the door to the room...

In the art gallery, which has moving planes (like cupboard doors lined with paintings- allowing more than one collection to be displayed at intervals) are works by one of my favourite artists, William Hogarth.  I always find his satirical depictions of the day highly amusing.  A Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings telling the story of fictional Tom Rakewell.

 A Rakes Progress- The Orgy...

We moved upwards to the Breakfast Room, with mirrors on each corner and north/ south/ east/ west labelling...

Oh, how I would have loved to have been able to take my own photos- BIG grrrrrr!

To give you some idea of the nature of the museum, here are some gargoyles that I believe you can buy in their shop.  Handsome, aren't they?!  It looks like a rougues' gallery of my ex-boyfriends!

There are seven private rooms, all previously used by John Soane, on the top floor.  I wasn't allowed to go up there as they're only accessible via a tour.  To be fair, a tour was about to start and I really didn't feel like tagging along as, at the time, I didn't know how long the tour lasted, didn't know how much it cost and had already traversed the museum once.  Apparently they're an hour long, you have to book, no more than eight people can take part and you have to pay £12.50.  I can't comment upon whether it's value for money as I didn't do it.

BUT, here's a suggestion to the museum trustees- why not make entrance to the private rooms available to everyone for a small fee- say two or three quid?  As the entrance to the rest of the museum is free, I'm sure most visitors would be happy to pay, and therefore create a lot more revenue than that gained by the accompanied tours.

Here's a bit of what I didn't see; the Model Room, displaying miniatures of Soane's architectural works...

I have to say, I enjoyed my visit but am unsure whether to return and do the private tour.  We shall see.

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