13 Lincoln's Inn Fields London 011 44 20 7405 2107
London Culture: 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.
The Museum is a building of outstanding originality, with its picturesque vistas and inventive handling of light and space. He filled it with a remarkable collection of art, sculpture, books, drawings and models. The collection includes paintings by Hogarth, Canaletto, Turner and Reynolds; antique sculpture; plaster casts; architectural models and an Egyptian sarcophagus. The objects are arranged in a labyrinth of top-lit spaces, decorated with hundreds of mirrors.
