Discover our new exhibition Georgian Illuminations with deaf guide Edward Richards for a special out-of-hours tour.
Lasting around an hour and limited to 10 people, these tours led by Deaf guides are exclusively for D/deaf and hard of hearing visitors.
Georgian Illuminations is an exhibition of works on paper focusing on the spectacular illuminations which were popular in the Georgian period. It concentrates on specific, well-publicised light shows of the period and the impressive and the elaborate temporary architectural structures created for them, often designed by leading architects and artists, including Soane. Royal entertainments, pleasure gardens, national celebrations, and illuminations by Soane all feature, demonstrating that these ephemeral cultural practices were drivers of architectural and technological innovation.
Newly discovered vast linen transparencies, which were back lit in Georgian windows as patriotic decoration during the Napoleonic Wars, are displayed on lightboxes for the first time in the Foyle Space.
Additionally, the Soane has commissioned a contemporary equivalent of the illuminated architecture explored in the exhibition. The light artist Nayan Kulkarni developing a new work to illuminate the façade of the Museum on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, reinforcing how light was a central element of design for Sir John Soane.
Thank you to everyone who has been in touch. This tour is now fully booked.
If you are attending and have any additional access needs, or if you have any questions, please contact Markand Patel via email.
Image: John Heaviside Clark, after Matthew Dubourg, The Chinese Bridge Illuminated, On the Night of the celebration of the Peace, 1814; Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III, 2023.
