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Sir John Soane

Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the life and work of John Soane, architect of the old Bank of England and collector of the antiquities displayed in his home which became a museum.

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鈥檚 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 鈥渢he poetry of architecture鈥. 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.

With:

Frances Sands, the Curator of Drawings and Books at Sir John Soane鈥檚 Museum

Frank Salmon, Associate Professor of the History of Art at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture

And

Gillian Darley, historian and author of Soane's biography.

Producer: Eliane Glaser
In Our time is a 成人快手 Studios Audio production.

Reading list:

Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890 (Oxford University Press, 2000)

Bruce Boucher, John Soane's Cabinet of Curiosities: Reflections on an Architect and His Collection (Yale University Press, 2024)

Oliver Bradbury, Sir John Soane鈥檚 Influence on Architecture from 1791: An Enduring Legacy (Routledge, 2015)

Gillian Darley, John Soane: An Accidental Romantic (Yale University Press, 1999)

Ptolemy Dean, Sir John Soane and the Country Estate (Ashgate, 1999)

Ptolemy Dean, Sir John Soane and London (Lund Humphries, 2006)

Helen Dorey, John Soane and J.M.W. Turner: Illuminating a Friendship (Sir John Soane鈥檚 Museum, 2007)

Tim Knox, Sir John Soane鈥檚 Museum (Merrell, 2015)

Brian Lukacher, Joseph Gandy: An Architectural Visionary in Georgian England (Thames and Hudson, 2006)

Susan Palmer, At 成人快手 with the Soanes: Upstairs, Downstairs in 19th Century London (Pimpernel Press, 2015)

Frances Sands, Architectural Drawings: Hidden Masterpieces at Sir John Soane鈥檚 Museum (Batsford, 2021)

Sir John Soane鈥檚 Museum, A Complete Description (Sir John Soane鈥檚 Museum, 2018)

Mary Ann Stevens and Margaret Richardson (eds.), John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light (Royal Academy Publications, 1999)

John Summerson, Architecture in Britain 1530-1830 (9th edition, Yale University Press, 1993)

A.A. Tait, Robert Adam: Drawings and Imagination (Cambridge University Press, 1993)

John H. Taylor, Sir John Soane鈥檚 Greatest Treasure: The Sarcophagus of Seti I (Pimpernel Press, 2017)

David Watkin, Sir John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

David Watkin, Sir John Soane: The Royal Academy Lectures (Cambridge University Press, 2000)

John Wilton-Ely, Piranesi, Paestum & Soane (Prestel, 2013)

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Sun 9 Feb 2025 23:00

Featured

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Guests and related links

Contributors:

, a historian and Soane鈥檚 biographer

of the University of Cambridge

of Sir John Soane鈥檚 Museum


Related links:


Broadcasts

  • Thu 6 Feb 2025 09:00
  • Sun 9 Feb 2025 23:00

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