After 200 years of secrecy, John Soane’s drawing office, the oldest surviving example of its kind, is now open to the public.
The historic British architect built, lived and worked in the grand, stately buildings that overlook Lincolns Inn Field, London, for much of his life.
His former home and office is now a museum dedicated to his legacy. But, at the very top of the Sir John Soane Museum, a room has remained invisible for the past 200 years. This was, according to the museum director, the “creative heart” of Soane’s practice.
Within the narrow confines of the so-called Drawing Office, Soane’s draftsmen and apprentices worked with Soane on the designs that shaped the neo-classical architectural character of the Regency era in London.
Today, after a year of restoration work, visitors can see the room where Soane created the plans that would change the course of architecture in London.
“The Drawing Desk was the last major element of the fabric of the museum to be restored,” Bruce Boucher, director of the Sir John Soane Museum, said in a statement.
The son of a lowly stonemason from a small Oxfordshire village, Soane became one of Britain’s most influential architects. His designs include the Bank of England (although his original work on the building has now been largely destroyed) and the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Soane’s designs were deeply influenced by his studies of ancient Rome, the ancient Greek city of Paestum and the archaeological remains of Pompeii. Soane visited each site as a young man on a tour of Europe funded by King George III through a scholarship.
Today, the Sir John Soane Museum occupies three buildings on Lincolns Inn Fields. Soane purchased and rebuilt each of the buildings during his lifetime, acquiring the first building, at the time a 17th century house, in 1792. Soane largely demolished the building, rebuilding it to his own vision as his home and his bespoke office, choosing the location as it was situated between the Bank of England, which he designed and helped build, and the Royal Academy, then Somerset House, where he worked as a professor of ‘architecture.
During restoration, the conservation team made a fascinating discovery. Hidden in the hollow base of a support column, they found a pipe with tobacco still in the bowl and a railway ticket from South Kensington to London. Museum curators believe it was probably left by a craftsman during earlier restoration work at the Soane in 1928.
To mark this discovery, a new time capsule was placed in the repaired structure of the office. Soane’s curator, Jane Wilkinson, left behind a paintbrush, a small pot of gold leaf and a recent invoice for a pot of paint for future restorers to find.
