Part One: Luxury for Free
One museum in London is kind of a secret club: a 'shave and a haircut' knock for designers. Being able to say you've been there is nerd street cred of the highest caliber. It is of course, The John Soane Museum. If you are an obnoxious hipster designer, your first expression would be 'Oh, have you not heard of the Soane?' said with a downcast eye and a mixture of contempt, pride and superiority. Barf.
Some people are under the impression that the only kind of people who 'get' the Soane Museum are designers and that's just nonsense. Anyone who is interested in something unusual likes the Soane Museum, which is why their candlelight tours (which take place the first Tuesday of every month seriously, look it up) are always packed around the block.
So what makes the Soane so special?
If it were a movie the tag line would be: 'It Takes Progress'
The trailer would start: 'In a world, where life was run by a series of precise rules and polite society, one man decided to create his own dream scape, where anything was possible.'
Then the score starts playing and...who can we get?... Hugh Jackman... looks up from a drafting desk.
Cut to black.
Coming this Christmas: SOANE.
Getting back on track: John Soane was a neo-classical English architect in the late 1700s/early 1800s who rose up the ranks of society from a humble background, mostly through his charm, connections and talent to become one of the most celebrated designers in England. You can see his influence in London today, from public buildings to the red telephone booths (which were inspired by some of his later work). The wealth and prestige his success bought him allowed Soane to buy a house in fancy (and also schmancy) neighborhood of Holborn. Slowly the home was expanded and became a sort of playground for the brilliant mind. It was here Soane could experiment with concepts on a individual scale and magnificently arrange the numerous souvenirs from his global travels. If you have ever wondered what the concept of the 'Sublime' looks like in architecture, this is a perfect example. It's weird, it's small and you feel like at any moment you could be grabbed by a maniac or fall through the floor, but that excitement is kind of the best part. On top of that, and let's get real here: it's just plain beautiful. The light, the layering, the arrangement, the Soane Museum makes you the star of your very own version of Indiana Jones. It's personal and it's charming, you feel like you really get to know the man who designed it. Love. Passion. Fear. Regret. You can see how a guy like this could become such good friends with JMW Turner.
Due to the thoroughness of it's integration, it's hard to tell where the collection ends and the building begins. However, there are a few moments that stand out, particularly in the painting room, where you can find an original Hogarth in the form of A Rake's Progress.
More on that here:
You can also review our old posts about Northern Scotland, which goes over it, click Here
The display of A Rake's Progress is masterfully done, a visionary design of scale that opens expensively. Watching the paintings unfold, you feel sophisticated and wealthy, something I realized because Grad school makes you very, very poor. This experience is poignant especially because the display may have been designed to give Soane comfort after he realized that his own son, George Soane, was a stereotypical 'Rake'. Violent, dissolute, angry and bitter, George marries a girl to spite his parents, gets into debt he can't get out of and spends the rest of his adult life simultaneously trying to destroy his Father's reputation and, stupidly, also trying to extort money from him.
To ensure his wastrel son does not get the inheritance, and also because it's a nice thing to do, upon his death Soane donated his collection and home to the city of London, where you can view it, any time of the year for nothing. If you're in London, do it, it's a 4 minute walk from the Holborn tube station and absolutely worth your time. Go for the nerd cred, stay for the sheer experience. Even if you're not a designer, trust me, you'll love it.
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