The architect Sir John Soane's house, museum and library at No 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields has been a public museum since the early 19th century.
Soane demolished and rebuilt three houses in succession on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, beginning with No. 12 between 1792 and 1794, moving on to No. 13, re-built in two phases in 1808-9 and 1812, and concluding with No. 14, rebuilt in 1823-24.
On his appointment to the Royal Academy in 1806 Soane (1753-1837) began to arrange his collected books, classical antiquities casts and models, so that students of architecture might benefit from access to them and proposed opening his house for the use of the Royal Academy students the day before and the day after each of his lectures. By 1827, when John Britton published the first description of the Museum, Soane's collection was being referred to as an 'Academy of Architecture'.
In 1833 he negotiated an Act of Parliament to preserve the house and collection after his death for the benefit of 'amateurs and students' in architecture, painting and sculpture.
Today Sir John Soane's Museum is one of the country's most unusual and significant museums with a continuing and developing commitment to education and creative inspiration.
The Museum is open free of charge from Tuesday to Saturday inclusive, 10am-5pm (last entry 4.30pm). Also on the first Tuesday evening of each month for candlelit visits, 6-9pm. There is no advance booking for these popular evenings. Closed Sunday, Monday, bank holidays and Christmas Eve. Tours are available on Saturdays only at 11am. Tickets, priced at £5, are available on a first come first served basis on the day from 10.30am.
Sir John Soane's Museum is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) whose prime sponsor is the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The Soane Museum provides a comprehensive insight into the architect's work containing 2,523 Soane Drawings bound in 37 Volumes, 8,044 of his loose or framed drawings and Soane's archive of personal and business papers.
162 Architectural models and an impressive 17,474 Architectural drawings and prints housed in the museum support its status as an Academy of Architecture as do a myriad of artefacts, antiquities and art including:-