Free Audio Tours of Sir John Soane's Museum
As part of our commitment to help people enjoy and learn about the Soane Museum, we have developed a programme of free Audio Tours, which can be downloaded on to your MP3 player, iPod and some mobile phones. This means that they are yours to keep for as long as you want. You can listen to the tours before or after your visit and plan your own tour of the Museum.
Sir John used to take his visitors on a personal tour of his house and collections and we are delighted to be able to use the latest technology to carry on this tradition - without injuring the unique atmosphere of the Museum.
In the future, we hope to develop more tours for our visitors to use; perhaps in foreign languages or speciality tours that look in detail at different part of the collections. Or perhaps you have a disability that prevents you from seeing or enjoying the entire house; could an audio tour help you?
To help us plan these future tours, please let us have feedback on your experience of visiting the Museum and using these guides. Did you enjoy them? Were they useful? Can we make them easier to use? Did we miss out things that you wanted to know about? Please email your comments to mnicholson@soane.org.uk and help us to make these and future audio guides a success.
Tim Knox
Director
Below are our free audio tours. Download the tour of your choice to your computer, then transfer it to a portable player, (mp3 player, iPod or phone), which you can bring along and use as your personal guide on a fascinating visit to Sir John Soane's Museum...
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...but first, here is Stephen Fry, to tell you about Sir John Soane, his museum and what to expect on your visit.
Simply press the "play" arrow below to listen...
Get Flash to see this player.
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The Classic Tour
Introduced by Stephen Fry
60 minutes
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Tim Knox, the Director of Sir John Soane's Museum, accompanies the visitor on an in-depth tour, pointing out the highlights of the collection.
The 32 tracks are organised on a room-by-room basis and follow a route used by Sir John Soane himself when showing visitors around.
Playback can be paused during or between tracks so you can move at your own pace and take as long as you like in each room.
You can listen to Track 1 (Overview) before coming to the museum. Tracks 2 and 3 (Introduction and Outside the Museum) should be played before entering, when you are in Lincoln's Inn Fields, looking at the front of the houses.
To download your free Classic Tour, simply click this button:
A 60MB ZIP file containing 32 individual MP3 files (totaling 87MB) will be downloaded to your computer. The files will be placed on your desktop or into your audio software (i-Tunes, Windows Media Player or the software that came with your MP3 player or phone). If the files are placed on your desktop, select them all and drag or import them into your audio software.
Then transfer all the files to your portable player, following the instructions supplied with your MP3 player or iPod and you're ready to listen.
We offer two other download options:
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The Junior Tour
Introduced by Stephen Fry and
read by Eleanor Bron
59 minutes
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In this atmospheric tour, the actress Eleanor Bron guides the listener through Sir John Soane's Museum, accompanied by music and sound effects.
This tour is suitable for older children and visitors who want a lighter, more impressionistic tour.
The 32 tracks are organised on a room-by-room basis and follow a route used by Sir John Soane himself when showing visitors around.
Playback can be paused during or between tracks so you can move at your own pace and take as long as you like in each room.
You can listen to Track 1 (Overview) before coming to the museum. Tracks 2 and 3 (Introduction and Outside the Museum) should be played before entering, when you are in Lincoln's Inn Fields, looking at the front of the houses.
To download your free Junior Tour, simply click this button:
A 60MB ZIP file containing 32 individual MP3 files (totaling 87MB) will be downloaded to your computer. The files will be placed on your desktop or into your audio software (i-Tunes, Windows Media Player or the software that came with your MP3 player or phone). If the files are placed on your desktop, select them all and drag or import them into your audio software.
Then transfer all the files to your portable player, following the instructions supplied with your MP3 player or iPod and you're ready to listen.
We offer two other download options:
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These audio tours have been written and produced by Simon Sharkey of Vocal Heroes with the collaboration of Sir John Soane's Museum.
Made possible by the generous support of a charitable trust.
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