London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [42]
Fodor’s Choice | Sir John Soane’s Museum.
Sir John (1753–1837), architect of the Bank of England, bequeathed his house to the nation on condition that nothing be changed. He obviously had enormous fun with his home: in the Picture Room, for instance, two of Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress series are among the paintings on panels that swing away to reveal secret gallery pockets with even more paintings. Everywhere mirrors and colors play tricks with light and space, and split-level floors worthy of a fairground fun house disorient you. In a basement chamber sits the vast 1300 BC sarcophagus of Seti I, lit by a domed skylight two stories above. (When Sir John acquired this priceless object for £2,000, after it was rejected by the British Museum, he celebrated with a three-day party.) The elegant, tranquil courtyard gardens with statuary and plants are open to the public, and there’s a below-street-level passage, which joins two of the courtyards to the museum. Because of the small size of the museum, limited numbers are allowed entry at any one time, so you may have a short wait outside. On the first Tuesday of the month, the museum opens for a special candle-light evening from 6 to 9 pm, but expect to wait in a queue for this unique experience. | 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Bloomsbury | WC2A 3BP | 020/7405–2107 | www.soane.org | Free, Sat. tour £5 | Tues.–Sat. 10–5; also 6–9 on 1st Tues. of month | Holborn.
WORTH NOTING
Charles Dickens Museum.
This is the only one of the many London houses Charles Dickens (1812–70) inhabited that is still standing, and it would have had a real claim to his fame in any case because he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby and finished Pickwick Papers here between 1837 and 1839. The house looks exactly as it would have in Dickens’s day, complete with first editions, letters, and a tall clerk’s desk (where the master wrote standing up, often while chatting with visiting friends and relatives). Down in the basement is a replica of the Dingley Dell kitchen from Pickwick Papers. A program of changing special exhibitions gives insight into the Dickens family and the author’s works, with sessions where, for instance, you can try your own hand with a quill pen. Visitors have reported a “presence” upstairs in the Mary Hogarth bedroom, where Dickens’s sister-in-law died. Investigate yourself and decide whether you’re spooked—or feel a sense of calm. Christmas is a memorable time to visit, as the rooms are decorated in traditional style: better than any televised costume drama, this is the real thing. | 48 Doughty St., Bloomsbury | WC1N 2LX | 020/7405–2127 | www.dickensmuseum.com | £5 | Daily 10–5; last admission 4:30 | Chancery La., Russell Sq.
Gray’s Inn.
Although the least architecturally interesting of the four Inns of Court and the one most damaged by German bombs in the 1940s, it still has its romantic associations. In 1594 Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors was performed for the first time in its hall—which was restored after World War II and has a fine Elizabethan screen of carved oak. You must make advance arrangements to view the hall, but the secluded and spacious gardens, first planted by Francis Bacon in 1606,