This weekend my husband took me for a couple of days in london so I repaid him by taking him to the John Soames museum. Like most people we knew the name without knowing much about him or anything about his museum. Therefore, we encountered the place fresh and without preconceived ideas. We even ignored the doorman’s advise not to put the written guide that we had just bought into our back pocket. On reflection I am glad we didn’t read it until the following day, so it didn’t influence our discussion as we reviewed our visit.
To start with we joined a queue, just as we had been led to expect. We fancied, judging by their accents that many of those in the queue were italian. We looked at the house and jimmy proclaimed that the facade of the middle house was Italianate-was this coincidence?
Anyway, having to queue was no bad thing. It built up an air of suspense and made us wonder what lay in store for us. When we finally reached the front gate, the doorman explained why I had to confine my bag within a plastic one that was provided and carry it in front of me. Apparently, the house was filled with so much treasure and the passage ways were so narrow that a bag carried normally could easily send any number of priceless artifacts smashing to the ground. He seemed so concerned about the preservation of his museum that we felt quite honored to be allowed in and just a little concerned about our clumsiness. I left my bag by the front door instead.
Our first view of the inside of the house did not disappoint us.The hall way and stairs looked both querky and grand at the same time. We immediately got that feeling of not wanting to miss a thing.
We went on into the dining room/library, which was dark and austere. There were a lot of mirrors, which we guessed were meant to make the room look bigger. Of course its difficult to judge such a thing without seeing the room without mirrors for comparison, but the mirrors behind the book cabinets gave a rather odd effect. We read later that at night time the flickering lights of candels reflected in the mirrors would have been very atmospheric. I certainly think it must have looked very spooky.
We were disappointed by Soames’ study. So small for such an important room. The dressing room was also so small and unusually appointed. Had Soames not considered functionality in his design?
Everything seemed to come at once at this point; The monument court, the Monk’s Yard, The picture room, ornaments, paintings, sky-lights. So much in such a small area. The Hoggarth paintings in the picture room made a big impression. The scenes gave the museum a reference in time and the fact that they were originals emphasised Soame’s importance.
Walking through the crypt and then the colonnade and dome, we found that the space was even more crammed full of ornaments. To be honest, it was all a bit too much for us to take in, and the clutter even distracted us from the architecture. On reflection, the artefacts on display would probably have been fascinating to most people of that time. We have been spoilt by foreign travel, television and seeing similar ornaments in many other museums.
We noticed the bust of Soames displayed in the Dome opposite the plaster cast of Apollo. We couldn’t help feel a sense of vanity at this.
Still on the ground floor, the breakfast room looked a bit sad, probably just because there was a lack of natural light. Upstairs the drawing room was also too dark. There was a much better feel to the corresponding room of no.12, even though there was no furniture and the walls were whitewashed. It was the only bright room in the house.
As we left the museum, our feelings about it were mixed. Our initial excitement had given way to a depressing feel about the place. Subsequently, we read that he became quite isolated and lonely in later life. Apparently he also fell out with his two sons. Our impression was that that this would have been a sad house to live in. It made us feel critical about the design of the house. The complicated over design afforded lots of opportunity to show off querky features, and architectural skill but left the house dark and claustrophobic. I am not sure if this made it a victim of his vanity or a noble sacrifice to inspire others in architecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment