Sir John Soane's Museum is one of London's most extraordinary small museums: the house of the Georgian architect Sir John Soane, preserved by Act of Parliament exactly as he left it in 1837 and packed from floor to ceiling with antiquities, casts, paintings and architectural fragments. It is less a gallery than a mind turned into a building.
Why visit
Nowhere else captures the imagination of a single collector so completely. Soane engineered the house with hidden recesses, coloured skylights and folding picture-room walls, so the experience is one of constant discovery in a tightly packed, atmospheric warren of rooms.
What to see
Treasures include the alabaster sarcophagus of the pharaoh Seti I, Hogarth's Rake's Progress series, and the picture room whose walls open out to reveal yet more paintings behind. Candlelit late openings are deservedly popular.
Visiting tips
Admission is free, though numbers are limited and timed entry may apply at busy periods, so check ahead. It overlooks Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, near the West End.
