With the recent commencement of a £7 million restoration project ‘Opening up the Soane’, of which the first phase will be completed in July 2012, we thought we would take a little look at one of London’s little architectural and design gems - Sir John Soane’s Museum.

Designed and built between 1792 and 1824, Soane’s Museum is a labyrinth of art, architecture and history. Soane was a passionate collector, a hoarder by most people’s definitions, of all sorts of interesting, classic and quirky works of art from Greek Vases, Roman busts and Napoleonic memorabilia to watercolour paintings and a portrait of his pet dog - Fanny. But his collection became part of the architecture of the building by using light, space and scale as a personal form of expression.

The building infuses ancient traditions with more contemporary Georgian styles. The Dome Area, Colonnade and Museum Corridor of the museum, for example, are mostly top-lit and inspired by Greco-Roman architecture, providing some idea of the ingenious lighting contrived by Soane for the top-lit banking halls at the Bank of England.

Soane sculpted light in the house by creating different optical atmospheres as you move through the building and the deeper you go the more crypt-like it becomes.

The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture calls Sir John Soane’s Museum “one of the most complex, intricate, and ingenious series of interiors ever conceived.” The coloured windows, dusty volumes and semi-secret doors which swing open to reveal hidden pictures combine to create an atmosphere like no other in London. This is exactly what Sir John intended when he managed to get a private act of parliament passed to convert his house into a museum after his death, stipulating that its contents should be left alone “as nearly as possible”. Despite one contemporary writer objecting that it was inconceivable for a man not to leave his house to his family, the law passed.

As professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, Soane wanted to turn his house into a museum to allow free access for students and the public to “consult, inspect and benefit’ from the building and also for it to serve as a source of inspiration for budding architects, painters and sculptors.

Fortunately for us, the museum fell out of critical favour in its first 100 years and the general indifference meant that it remained largely untouched until it was rediscovered in the 20th century.

From July 2012, visitors will be able to view Soane’s former dining room, bedchambers and a withdrawing room among other that have been restored to house the new Soane shop, exhibition gallery and conservation centre – rooms which have not been open to the public for over 180 years. Restoration will continue in 2013 to uncover even more of the Museum’s secrets.

You can find Sir John Soane’s Museum at No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holborn, London, and we would definitely recommend a visit! For more information on the Museum and forthcoming event/exhibition listings click here.