Search results
Visiting Safely Back to top
We ask our visitors to follow the below guidance during their visit to the Soane.
- We request that visitors do not bring any luggage or large bags to the Museum. This includes; large rucksacks, suitcases, and bikes. As the Museum spaces are narrow and our museum objects are fragile, we will provide a clear plastic bag for any small items you’d like to carry. The dimensions of the bag are 375mm x 450mm + 75mm deep.
- Please do not touch any doors or surfaces in the Museum.
- We have restricted our visitor numbers to avoid spaces becoming crowded and for the safety of the collection itself.
Photography is permitted inside the Museum. Flash photography, filming your visit, tripods, selfie sticks, large cameras and phone calls are not permitted.
Entry to the Museum is through the original front door of No. 13. Visitors should expect to have to wait to enter some interiors and some may be visible only from behind stanchions.
Getting here Back to top
Find us at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP.
By tube
Holborn (for Central and Piccadilly lines) is a short five minute walk away, while Temple (for the Circle and District lines) is 15 minutes away.
By bus
Buses 1, 59, 68, 91, 168, 171, 188, 243, 521, and X68 stop on Kingsway. Buses 8, 25, and 242 stop on High Holborn.
By bike
Sardinia Street and Portugal Street docking stations for Santander Cycles, or park your own bike at Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
By car
We are in the congestion charge zone, with a few pay-and-display parking spaces and green-badge bays in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
Physically disabled visitors Back to top
Our resources are limited and as such, we require that visitors with requiring the lift call at least 24 hours ahead. To organise your visit, please call 020 7405 2107.
We now have an internal and an external platform lift for step-free access to the Museum. Please call ahead so that we have a member of staff on hand to operate the lift as, due to our Grade 1 listing, the lift cannot be in a public space.
If you use crutches or a walking stick, you should be able to go everywhere inside, but some spaces are too narrow for walking frames. If you would like to borrow one of our custom wheelchairs, please call ahead.
Inside, standard wheelchairs are usually too big for our narrow corridors and doorways; so visitors with wheelchairs larger than 41cm wide, 84cm deep and a height of 82cm, will be asked to transfer to our own specially manufactured narrow wheelchairs.
Cloakroom and Luggage Back to top
As the Museum spaces are narrow and our museum objects are fragile, we will provide a clear plastic bag for any small items you’d like to carry. The dimensions of the bag are 375mm x 450mm + 75mm deep.
The Museum’s cloakroom is very limited and we ask that visitors do not bring any luggage to the Museum. This includes large/camping rucksacks, suitcases, and bikes. For smaller rucksacks and bags, there is a limited free cloakroom available. Neither the Museum nor its employees accept any liability for the loss of, or damage to, anything left in the cloakroom.
The website stasher shows nearby locations where you can pay a fee to leave luggage.
Prams can be left in the space outside the Museum (within our gates but outdoors). Baby slings or on-person carriers are welcome inside the Museum.
Accessibility Back to top
Visitors with disabilities are very welcome. To ensure your requirements are met during your visit, contact us in advance on 020 7405 2107 or email admin@soane.org.uk.
Read more about access at the Museum, or watch our video guide to start planning your visit.
Blind and partially-sighted visitors Back to top
If you’d like an audio tour of the museum, please book this in advance and we’ll make sure it’s ready for your arrival.
Ask us if you’d like to borrow large-print copies of exhibition labels and panels. We can also offer a large-print or braille version of our short guide to the museum.
We advise visiting during the day, because we use very little artificial light. We can sometimes offer torches or additional overhead lighting though, so please ask us.
We’ve developed our guide dog policy with advice from the Guide Dogs Association. If you use an assistance dog, we recommend leaving them with us in a designated safe space (where they’ll have plenty of water) during your visit.
To bring your dog with you into the Museum, you have to be accompanied by a member of staff, both for your dog’s safety and your own. So please let us know by calling 020 7405 2107 that you’ll be visiting so we can make sure someone is available.
Shop Back to top
Our shop has a wide range of gift ideas to suit all ages and pockets - from bespoke jewellery and beautiful books, to exclusive products inspired by our collection. Visit during Museum opening hours or shop online. Every purchase supports the Museum.
Photography and Sketching Back to top
Photography is permitted inside the Museum as long as care for the collection and Museum is respected. Flash photography, filming your visit, photo shoots, tripods, selfie sticks, large cameras, lenses, and phone calls are not permitted. Where bottlenecks build up, staff reserve the right to discourage photographing objects to ease the flow through the Museum.
Sharing your photos on Instagram or X? Tag us at @SoaneMuseum or use #PhototheSoane and you could see your work shared on our feed.
Unfortunately, we do not currently permit sketching in the Museum.
Deaf and hard of hearing visitors Back to top
We offer induction loops at the front desk and in our shop.
We can also set up induction loops for seated lectures, talks and events – please let us know when you book.
You can also watch our British Sign Language Tour film here: https://youtu.be/pxJbv0k4qGI?si=qNkwuZYZly_zTBeo
Beginning the project Back to top
Following advice from English Heritage and other specialists the commission to create the new paper was awarded to Adelphi Paper Hangings in Sharon Springs, New York - amongst the few companies left in the world able to produce block printed wallpaper of the required quality, by hand.
Before beginning work, Steve Larson of Adelphi spent time in London carefully creating colour samples (in watercolour on paper) exactly matching the bright original colours of Soane’s paper, preserved in a small sample in the Cowtan Order Book at the Victoria and Albert Museum. These samples would be used to exactly reproduce the original colours when making the new paper.