Sir John Soane's Museum — Attraction in London

Sir John Soane’s Museum is one of London’s most fascinating hidden gems. Tucked away in a beautiful townhouse in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, this incredible museum is free to enter (although donations are welcome) and offers an unforgettable journey into the mind of one of Britain’s most eccentric collectors.

The moment you step inside, you’re transported into a world of art, antiquities, and architectural curiosities. Every inch of the space is crammed to the brim with treasures—ancient sculptures, intricate paintings, rare books, and strange and wonderful artefacts from across the globe. The rooms are dimly lit, creating an intimate and almost magical atmosphere as you wander through narrow corridors and hidden passageways.

One of the absolute highlights is the Sarcophagus of Seti I, a breathtakingly well-preserved Egyptian relic housed in the atmospheric crypt-like basement. The fact that this priceless artefact is displayed in a small London townhouse rather than a vast museum makes the experience all the more surreal.

The Picture Room is another marvel. It’s an architectural masterpiece in itself, with ingenious hinged panels that allow multiple layers of paintings to be revealed. Seeing works by Canaletto, Turner, and Hogarth in such an intimate setting is truly special.

Soane’s love for architecture is on full display, with models, drawings, and architectural fragments filling every available space. The Dome Room is a particular standout, with its soaring ceiling and walls lined with classical busts and sculptures.

What makes this museum even more special is how unchanged it feels since Soane’s time—as if he has just stepped out, leaving his collections exactly as they were. It’s a rare glimpse into the mind of a genius who was both an architect and a hoarder of history’s finest treasures.

It’s a place where you could easily spend hours and still uncover something new. A must-visit for lovers of art, history, and all things quirky—and best of...

It is tempting to leave two separate reviews - one for the museum itself and a couple of exceptional members of staff - and one for the rest of staff, who almost managed to overshadow the experience.

The museum itself is quite exceptional, and worth a visit for anyone with an appreciation of art and architecture. As mentioned, a couple of staff members were very helpful and knowledgeable.

Others, unfortunately, seemed almost intent at making the experience uncomfortable. The first person selling guides stated proudly that she never listened to the audioguide so she doesn’t know how it compares to the book for the museum. A gentleman downstairs positioned his chair in a manner that blocked two thirds of an already narrow passage and did not acknowledge the existence of visitors forced to awkwardly squeeze past him. Another snapped at another pair of guests “I need to finish with these people first” while dealing with my and my wife’s bags, although the guests in question were not exhibiting any signs of impatience or pressure.

The “anti-highlight”, however, was the staff member positioned near the sarcophagus downstairs on Wednesday 16th of April just after 11AM. I saw her tell an non-white visitor to get away from a pedestal when the said visitor about two feet away… while having no problem whatsoever with myself and several other visitors, all white, approach closer, both right before and right after. Literally seconds apart. I suppose in that lady’s mind a person’s ability to respect a historical place depends entirely on their skin colour, as there is no other explanation for the very selective vigilance.

Also I am quite certain I saw the same staff member later use a UV light setting rather than the “normal” on her torch setting to highlight a feature. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s normally considered a very bad idea for...

The experience was wonderful, the staff were very friendly, i was there to look for statues of women for a college project, i found many thanks to the staff’s help, but sadly the experience was ruined by a specific situation, in one of the smaller rooms, one with paintings, when i walked in, there was a couple taking pictures of a statue of a woman, i only saw a flash of it, since as soon as the staff saw me walking in, he immediately rushed into closing the first layer of the walls, apologised to the couple but said he had to close it, i asked politely if he would open them again if not at that time, then maybe later at some point for me to take a quick picture of the statue, he immediately frowned and started to tell me that no, he couldn’t open it again, and if i wanted i could take a picture from below or from a small green window on the side…he was very rude and sounded snappy with me, the couple laughed loudly at this, the three of them were definitely older than me, the couple had no VIP cards or anything that indicated special treatments…i felt uncomfortable and humiliated, even though i was very polite when asking, he told me if i wanted a picture of the four paintings i could take a very quick glance, because he absolutely needed to close the whole wall…but as soon as another man walked into the room and asked the staff questions, his expression and tone immediately changed to friendly…i felt targeted, possibly because i am young or simply because he didn’t like something about me,the reason doesn’t matter, as there is not justification for someone to be treated like this…this ruined the rest of my trip as i no longer felt comfortable talking to staff, not wanting the situation to...