Page 142 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - London

140  L ONDON AREA B Y AREA

2 Lincoln’s Inn
WC2. Map 14 D1. Tel 020 7405 1393.
1 Holborn, Chancery Lane.
Open Chapel: 9am–5pm Mon–Fri.
Other buildings: check website.
7 8 First Fri of month 2pm.
∑ lincolnsinn.org.uk
Some of the buildings in
Lincoln’s Inn, the best-preserved
of London’s Inns of Court, go
back to the late 15th century.
The coat of arms above the
arch of the Chancery Lane
gatehouse is Henry VIII’s, and
the heavy oak door is of the
same vintage. Shakespeare’s
contemporary, Ben Jonson, is
believed to have laid some of
the bricks of Lincoln’s Inn during
the reign of Elizabeth I. The
chapel is early 17th-century
Gothic. Women were not
allowed to be buried here until
1839, when the grieving Lord
Brougham petitioned to have
the rule changed so that his
beloved daughter could be
interred in the chapel, to wait
for him to join her.
Lincoln’s Inn has its share
of famous alumni. Oliver
The interior of the chapel in the grounds of Lincoln’s Inn Cromwell and John Donne,

1 Sir John Soane’s museum into the rear of this A glass dome allows light
Museum building. Today, the collections into the basement.
are much as Soane left them – an
13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields WC2. eclectic gathering of beautiful, A vast sarcophagus
Map 14 D1. Tel 020 7405 2107. peculiar and instructional objects. (1300 BC) stands on the
1 Holborn. Open 10am–5pm The building itself abounds floor of the basement.
Tue–Sat, 6–9pm first Tue of month. with architectural surprises and
Closed public hols, 24 Dec. 7 limited illusions. In the main ground-
– phone first. 8 tour times vary, check
in advance; groups book ahead. = floor room, with its deep red
∑ soane.org and green colouring, cun ningly
placed mirrors play tricks with
One of the most surprising light and space. The picture
museums in London, this house gallery is lined with layers of
was left to the nation by Sir folding panels to increase its
John Soane in 1837, with a far- capacity. The panels open out
sighted stipulation that nothing to reveal galleried extensions
at all should be changed. One to the room itself. Among other
of Britain’s leading 19th-century works here are many of Soane’s
architects, Soane was responsible own Neo-Classical designs,
for designing Dulwich Picture including those for Pitzhanger
Gallery (see pp256–7). The son Manor (see p264) and the Bank
of a bricklayer, he married the of England (see p151). Here also
niece of a wealthy builder, whose is William Hogarth’s Rake’s
fortune he inherited. He bought Progress series.
and reconstructed No. 12 In the centre of the basement,
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, then No. 13, an atrium stretches up to the
which he and his wife moved into roof, the glass dome of which
in 1813, and later, in 1823–4, he lights galleries, on every floor,
rebuilt No. 14, extending his laden with Classical statuary.

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