SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM By David Wills

Being an enthusiast of Sir John Soane's Museum seems to be rather like being an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries -you don't tend to tell anyone else about it. On a number of occasions over the past ten years (since I "discovered" it), various long-term friends, seeking a place to meet in London, have amazed me by suddenly saying, "What about my favourite museum ...I don't think I've told you about it ...the little one near Holbom ...do you know it?" They are equally surprised when I reply, "1 do know it, actually: I used to 'work' there."

Oh, certainly, the building does not advertise itself. It is in a quiet square off the main road -a square (Lincoln's Inn Fields) full of lawyers, solicitors (and worse, no doubt). There is no large sign. In fact, over the last ten years, I have often found the sign for pedestrians from Holbom station pointing the wrong way. It is a terraced house. Yes, it has impressive caryatids on the facade, but it is a terraced house all the same.

Its situation may not be extraordinary, but its position certainly is. It is the preserved house of a famous person, yet it is not owned by the National Trust. It is a museum, yet it does not update its displays. In fact, the owner saw his house confirmed as a posthumous memorial by an Act of Parliament passed four years before his death.

It was this Act of Parliament that enshrined the two principles upon which "the Soane" (as it is affectionately known) is run today. Firstly, the arrangement of the contents was to be left as Soane left it. Secondly, Soane's possessions were to be accessible to the public for their "benefit". What form did Soane intend this "benefit" to take? Soane was resolved that fledgling architects should take inspiration from the collection amassed in his house. This was not mere vanity. Soane was a force to be reckoned with in the world of architecture, Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy from 1806 (which celebrated his achievements in an exhibition in 1998), and Architect to the Bank of England for 45 years unti11833.

Like the British Museum, the Soane celebrates the cult of the object. I have always criticised the British Museum for its focus on the object -in my view, we are asked to stand and admire the exhibits for their aesthetic qualities and their workmanship, and their historical and archaeological background takes a back seat. In some ways, at the Soane the object is everything too -objects often have no labels, and certainly not modem ones. At the Soane Museum, however, this is not important. Indeed, it is not the point.

It is true that the Soane contains many individual items that deserve special attention. For those who appreciate 18th century art, Soane's "Picture Room" contains Hogarth's painting series entitled A Rake's Progress and An Election. As well as numerous Etruscan vases and original Roman portrait busts, classicists will find a female figure from the frieze of the Erechtheion. For those who like their antiquity even more antique, in the centre of the museum is the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I (c.1318-1304 BC). This is an object that I found fascinating long before I first visited the museum, not because it is beautiful (though it is) but because of its modern history. Briefly, the sarcophagus was discovered in situ in the Valley of the Kings in 1817, by the ex-circus strongman Giovanni Belzoni (who had the disconcerting habit, from a modem archaeological point of view, of using a battering-ram as a method of opening tombs). The sarcophagus was bought by Soane after being rejected by the British Museum for being .'too expensive".

Thus, Soane did buy some objects for the collection because of the value they had as individual pieces. But mostly, he was interested in the overall effect that he could create by displaying objects together. At the heart of Soane's Museum -physically and intellectually -is an area known as "the Dome". It is a riot of classical sculpture: cinerary urns, busts,capitals, friezes: line the wall from floor to ceiling. Authenticity does not matter -plaster casts jostle for space among marble originals -and no one item dominates, although a full-size Apollo Belvedere is imposing. Many of these items are too inaccessible to see in detail. In an area off this space, with a clear view of it, Soane's architectural students worked on designs for new buildings. Soane intended that, as they worked, they could not avoid absorbing how others before them had rendered the classical style. Soane produced a vista which represented the underpinning of his whole professional life.

It is this, rather than the fame of Soane (whose name is hardly a household one), which draws people to his museum today. Step inside, and you look across the cultural landscape of an 18th century mind -and the landmarks prove to be predominantly classical.

Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP. Open Thesday-Saturday 10am-5pm (closed Sundays and Mondays), and from 6-9pm on the first Thesday of every month. Nearest tube: Holborn. David Wills used to work at the Soane as a volunteer when he was an undergraduate. As a "grown up", he has lectured there.

From CA News No.22, June 2000.