His main legacy is Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields in his former home and office, designed to display the art works and architectural artefacts that he collected during his lifetime.

[2] He recalled later that he was 'placed in the office of an eminent builder in extensive practice where I had every opportunity of surveying the progress of building in all its different varieties, and of attaining the knowledge of measuring and valuing artificers' work'.

He received a travelling scholarship in December 1777 and exhibited at the Royal Academy a design for a Mausoleum for his friend and fellow student James King, who had drowned in 1776 on a boating trip to Greenwich.

[23] The Earl and Soane left for Rome on 12 March 1779, travelling via Capua, Gaeta, the Pontine Marshes, Velletri, the Alban Hills and Lake Albano, and Castel Gandolfo.

[27] Influenced by the account of the Villa in his copy of Patrick Brydone's Tour through Sicily and Malta, Soane savoured the "Prince of Palagonia's Monsters ... nothing more than the most extravagant caricatures in stone", but more significantly seems to have been inspired by the Hall of Mirrors to introduce similar effects when he came to design the interiors of his own house in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

[31] Shortly after, John Patterson returned to England via Vienna, from where he sent Soane the first six volumes of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, delivered by Antonio Salieri.

Then back to Bologna where Soane copied designs for completing the west front of San Petronio Basilica including ones by Palladio, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Baldassare Peruzzi.

Milan where he attended La Scala, the theatre was a growing interest, Lake Como from where they began their crossing of the Alps via the Splügen Pass.

Anna, Lady Miller, considered building a temple in her garden at Batheaston to Soane's design and he hoped he might receive work from her circle of friends.

[44] To help him out, George Dance gave Soane a few measuring jobs, including one in May 1781 on his repairs to Newgate Prison of damage caused by the Gordon Riots.

[51] At this early stage in his career Soane was dependent on domestic work, including: Piercefield House (1784), now a ruin;[52] the remodelling of Chillington Hall (1785);[53] The Manor, Cricket St Thomas (1786);[54] Bentley Priory (1788);[53] the extension of the Roman Catholic Chapel at New Wardour Castle (1788).

Practically all the leading practitioners in London were members, and it combined a meeting to discuss professional matters, at 5:00 pm on the first Thursday of every month with a dinner.

Among Soane's most notable works are the dining rooms of both Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street[96] (1824–26) for the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively of Great Britain.

As an official architect of the Office of Works Soane was asked to design the New Law Courts at Westminster Hall, he began surveying the building on 12 July 1820.

[99] All the court rooms displayed Soane's typically complex lighting arrangements, being top lit by roof lanterns often concealed from direct view.

He added a curving gothic arcade with an entrance leading to a courtyard, a new Royal Gallery, main staircase and Ante-Room, all the interiors were in a grand neo-classical style, completed by January 1824.

[106] After Thomas Sandby died in 1798, George Dance, Soane's old teacher was appointed professor of architecture at the academy, but during his tenure of the post failed to deliver a single lecture.

All went well until he reached his fourth lecture on 29 January 1810, in it he criticised several recent buildings in London, including George Dance's Royal College of Surgeons of England and his former pupil Robert Smirke's Covent Garden Theatre.

The library covers a wide range of subjects: Greek and Roman classics, poetry, painting, sculpture, history, music, drama, philosophy, grammars, topographical works, encyclopaedias, runs of journals and contemporary novels.

[132] Incunabula in the library include:[126] Cristoforo Landino's Commentario sopra la Comedia di Dante, 1481; S. Brant Stultifera Navis, 1488; and Boethius's De Philosophico Consolatu, 1501.

von Cube, Ortus Saniatis, 1517, and Portiforium seu Breviarum ad Sarisbursis ecclesiae usum, 1555; and William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies of 1623, the First Folio.

Of Soane's drawings of his own designs (many are by his assistants and pupils, most notably Joseph Gandy), there are 601 covering the Bank of England, 6,266 of his other works and 1,080 prepared for the Royal Academy lectures.

[151] Other architects with drawings in the collection are by Christopher Wren,[152] there are 8,856 drawings by Robert Adam and James Adam,[153] John Thorpes book of architecture,[154] George Dance the Elder's 293 and George Dance the younger's 1,303, housed in a specially designed cabinet,[155] Sir William Chambers, James Playfair, Matthew Brettingham, Thomas Sandby, etc.

In June 1808 Soane purchased 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields for £4,200, initially renting the house to its former owner and extending his office over the garden to the rear.

[192] The inscription is:[193] Sacred to the Memory of Elizabeth, The Wife of John Soane, Architect She Died the 22nd November, 1815.With Distinguished Talents She United an Amiable and Affectionate Heart.Her Piety was Unaffected, Her Integrity Undeviating, Her Manners Displayed Alike Decision and Energy, Kindness and Suavity.These, the Peculiar Characteristics of Her Mind, Remained Untainted by an Extensive Intercourse with the World.The design of the tomb was a direct influence on Giles Gilbert Scott's design for the red telephone box.

[208] In the summer of 1816, a friend, Barbara Hofland, persuaded him to take a holiday in Harrogate,[209] there they visited Knaresborough, Plompton and its rocks, Ripon, Newby Hall, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Park, Castle Howard, Harewood House and Masham.

[60] Soane had other friends including James Perry, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, Barbara Hofland[217] and Rowland Burdon, whose friendship was formed while on the Grand Tour.

[227][228] Other successful architects who as students attended the lectures were James Pennethorne,[229] George Gilbert Scott,[230] Owen Jones[231] and Henry Roberts.

[235] As an example Robert Dennis Chantrell's indentures were signed on 14 January 1807 just after he was fourteen (a typical age to join the office), his apprenticeship was to last for seven years, at a cost of one hundred Guineas (early in Soane's career he charged £50 and this grew to 175 guineas),[235] Soane would provide 'board, lodgings and wearing apparel'; Chantrell only arrived in the office on 15 June 1807.

His situation implies great trust; he is responsible for the mistakes, negligences, and ignorances of those he employs; and above all, he is to take care that the workmen's bills do not exceed his own estimates.