Having enjoyed a quick dip into the British Museum I headed to Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
The Camden Council website describes Lincoln’s Inn Fields as “the largest square in London and the oldest in Camden”, noting that “there has been public open space here since at least the 12th century” and the space was once “popular for duellists” and known for a “minor speaker’s corner”.
I had come to Lincoln’s Inn Fields to visit Sir John Soane’s Museum (left of the photo above). The clue I tweeted to my location was the scaffolding on the outside of the museum. David Ault pointed out that this was a poor clue as it contained the name of the museum! I also tweeted the above photo of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which Speakers for Schools guessed correctly.
Sir John Soane’s Museum is so named because Sir John Soane built it:
as a setting for his antiquities and his works of art. After the death of his wife (1815), he lived here alone, constantly adding to and rearranging his collections. Having been deeply disappointed by the conduct of his two sons, one of whom survived him, he determined to establish the house as a museum to which ‘amateurs and students’ should have access.
The Soane Museum had been placed on the suggestions map as a:
House packed with loads of ancient stuff and architectural bits and so on. Free to get in between 10 and 5, but there’s usually a bit of a queue.
The queue was minimal and I was able to enter the house. I had downloaded the audio tour, prepared to spend the recommended hour exploring the house, but I had arrived too late to begin this. What I saw from a quick dash (no photos, I’m afraid) was interesting and I definitely intend to go back when I had more time, but I had less than half an hour until I had to dash onwards to my first timed appointment of the day. I’ll save that for a later post.