Sir John Soane

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the architect Sir John Soane (1753 -1837), the son of a bricklayer. He rose up the ranks of his profession as an architect to see many of his designs realised to great acclaim, particularly the Bank of England and the Law Courts at Westminster Hall, although his work on both of those has been largely destroyed. He is now best known for his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, which he remodelled and crammed with antiquities and artworks: he wanted visitors to experience the house as a dramatic grand tour of Europe in microcosm. He became professor of architecture at the Royal Academy, and in a series of influential lectures he set out his belief in the power of buildings to enlighten people about “the poetry of architecture”. Visitors to the museum and his other works can see his trademark architectural features such as his shallow dome, which went on to inspire Britain’s red telephone boxes.

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Guests

• Frances Sands No other episodes
  Curator of Drawings and Books at Sir John Soane's Museum
• Frank Salmon No other episodes
  Associate Professor of the History of Art at the University of Cambridge
• Gillian Darley 3 episodes
  Historian

Reading list

• European Architecture 1750-1890
  Barry Bergdoll (Oxford University Press, 2000) Google Books →
• John Soane's Cabinet of Curiosities: Reflections on an Architect and His Collection
  Bruce Boucher (Yale University Press, 2024) Google Books →
• Sir John Soane's Influence on Architecture from 1791: An Enduring Legacy
  Oliver Bradbury (Routledge, 2015) Google Books →
• John Soane: An Accidental Romantic
  Gillian Darley (Yale University Press, 1999) Google Books →
• Sir John Soane and the Country Estate
  Ptolemy Dean (Ashgate, 1999) Google Books →
• Sir John Soane and London
  Ptolemy Dean (Lund Humphries, 2006) Google Books →
• John Soane and J.M.W. Turner: Illuminating a Friendship
  Helen Dorey (Sir John Soane's Museum, 2007)
• Sir John Soane's Museum
  Tim Knox (Merrell, 2015)
• Joseph Gandy: An Architectural Visionary in Georgian England
  Brian Lukacher (Thames and Hudson, 2006) Google Books →
• At Home with the Soanes: Upstairs, Downstairs in 19th Century London
  Susan Palmer (Pimpernel Press, 2015) Google Books →
• Architectural Drawings: Hidden Masterpieces at Sir John Soane's Museum
  Frances Sands (Batsford, 2021) Google Books →
• A Complete Description
  Sir John Soane's Museum (Sir John Soane's Museum, 2018)
• John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light
  Mary Ann Stevens and Margaret Richardson (eds.) (Royal Academy Publications, 1999) Google Books →
• Architecture in Britain 1530-1830
  John Summerson (Yale University Press, 1993) Google Books →
• Robert Adam: Drawings and Imagination
  A.A. Tait (Cambridge University Press, 1993)
• Sir John Soane's Greatest Treasure: The Sarcophagus of Seti I
  John H. Taylor (Pimpernel Press, 2017) Google Books →
• Sir John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures
  David Watkin (Cambridge University Press, 1996) Google Books →
• Sir John Soane: The Royal Academy Lectures
  David Watkin (Cambridge University Press, 2000) Google Books →
• Piranesi, Paestum & Soane
  John Wilton-Ely (Prestel, 2013) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m0027jwv

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027jwv

Auto-category: 720.92 (Architecture - Biography)