Sir John Soane's Museum, House museum and art collection in Camden Town, United Kingdom.
Sir John Soane's Museum occupies three connected Georgian townhouses on Lincoln's Inn Fields and functions as both an art museum and a historic house museum. The interior contains rooms arranged across four levels, displaying architectural drawings, ancient sculptures, and paintings in the sequence designed by the architect himself.
Architect Sir John Soane lived in this house and spent decades assembling his collection of art and architectural drawings here. A private act of Parliament in 1833 ensured the preservation of his collection and transformed the residence into a public museum after his death in 1837.
The museum holds 30,000 architectural drawings, including works by Robert Adam, plus paintings by Turner, Canaletto, and Hogarth's complete 'The Rake's Progress' series.
The museum opens Tuesday through Saturday and sits on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the largest public square in Camden. Admission is free, but the narrow rooms and steep staircases make access difficult for wheelchair users.
The basement holds an Egyptian alabaster sarcophagus from the 13th century BC that once belonged to Pharaoh Seti I. Soane purchased it in 1824 from a treasure hunter and held a three-day party to celebrate the acquisition.
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