Sir John Soane’s Museum, London

Sir John Soane’s Museum has been on my want to visit list for a very long time but I’ve always put it off particularly because of their bag policy (more on that in a bit) and not having time in my schedule to fit it in when I might need to queue for a long time (pre-booking is only for large groups or special events). However on this most recent visit I had the entire morning free before I had a matinee to get to and decided that I would finally visit what turned out to be just as intriguing a museum as I had hoped.

Entry is free and it is very popular so you will need to queue outside. They’re open Wednesday to Sunday 10-5 with last admission 4.30. I got there shortly before 11am and had about a 35 minute wait – they were operating a 5 in 5 out policy during my visit. The queue continued to grow throughout the morning. When you reach the front of the queue you need to put any bag you have with you into one of the clear plastic bags provided – they’re about the average size of a standard plastic shopping bag – if it doesn’t fit the cloakroom on site has very little capacity, big rucksacks and other luggage you will have to find somewhere to store it yourself. I got chatting to the staff member dealing with the bags and he said that in the last few years visitor numbers have gone from hundreds a week to thousands.

The reason for the bags is that the house is crammed full of items Sir John Soane collected and his wish after his death was that the house remained as it was. So some of it looks like above but actually a lot of it also looks like below and I never felt particularly restricted or worried about bumping into anything. As you are informed when you enter this is not your typical museum so there are no explanatory labels telling you what each item is or where it came from (with one notable exception). You are given a bit of a soft sell for the guidebook at the entrance but I said I’d wait till the end so as not to be carrying it around with me and actually when I did leave the shop I bought the more expensive, but more comprehensive guide (£15) as opposed to the cheaper option (£3) as I found the place so interesting and wanted to learn more.

Left as it was at the time of Soane’s death in 1837 the best way I found to explore was literally wander around and take photos of anything that caught my eye. Every wall and surface has something of interest.

Sir John Soane was an architect whose sites aside from the house which would become the museum included the Bank of England building, Dulwich Picture Gallery and the original Freemason’s Hall in London. He was, as you can see, a great collector of all sorts of objects from paintings, statues, coins, books, architectural models, fragments of ancient buildings, you name it if it had even the vaguest relationship to his architectural interest, he collected it.

One of the most surprising items in the house is this sarcophagus, built for the Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I – Seti’s son was Ramses II. His coffin and mummy was placed in this sarcophagus on his death in 1279 BCE and placed in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Carved into the alabaster surface are hieroglyphics to help the Pharaoh pass through the underworld and reach the afterlife, though they proved a little tricky to photograph.

An Italian explorer called Belzoni discovered the sarcophagus in 1817. He wanted to sell it to the British Museum but it seems the price of £2,000 was too rich for them; instead Soane bought it and it became the most highly prized item in his collection.

The museum also has temporary exhibitions – when I was there the exhibition was Egypt: Influencing British Design 1775-2025 which had some lovely artwork on display like this drawing to illustrate the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly where Belzoni recreated the rooms from the Tomb of Seti I in 1821.

And this piece depicting Belzoni discovering Seti I’s tomb.

Fun fact: the museum was established during Soane’s lifetime by an Act of Parliament largely in order to disinherit his son, which is understandable when you realise his son George tried to extort money from his father, married a woman supposedly just to spite his parents (his words) and was imprisoned for debt and fraud and wrote a newspaper article attacking his father that may have hastened his already ill mother to her grave. He was also violent towards his wife and children and impregnated his wife’s sister. No wonder Soane didn’t want him anywhere near his museum.

I really enjoyed my visit and probably spent about an hour and a half there not including the queue. Once inside you are welcome to spend as much time there as you like. If you want there are also detailed behind the scenes tours and other events on their website which you can access for a fee.