THE CITY - London - page 168

LINCOLN'S INN
Lincoln's Inn Fields Chancery Lane 020 7405 1393, www.lincolnsinn.org.uk .Mon-Fri
7am-7pm.Free. MAP
Lincoln's Inn, on the east side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, was the first of the Inns of Court, and
in many ways is the prettiest, having miraculously escaped the ravages of the Blitz. Famous
alumni include Thomas More, Oliver Cromwell and Margaret Thatcher. The main entrance
is the diamond-patterned, red-brick Tudor gateway on Chancery Lane, adjacent to which is
the early seventeenth-century chapel (Mon-Fri noon-2.30pm), with its unusual fan-vaulted
open undercroft and, on the first floor, a late Gothic nave, hit by a zeppelin in World War I
and much restored since. The Inn's oldest building, the fifteenth-century Old Hall (appoint-
ment only), where the lawyers used to live and where Dickens set the case Jarndyce and
Jarndyce in Bleak House , features a fine timber roof, linenfold panelling and an elaborate,
early Jacobean screen.
SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM
13 Lincoln's Inn Fields Holborn 020 7405 2107, www.soane.org . Tues-Sat 10am-5pm.Free. MAP
The chief architect of the Bank of England, John Soane (1753-1837) designed this house
not only as a home and office but also as a place to stash his large collection of art and an-
tiquities. Arranged much as it was in his lifetime, the ingeniously planned house has an in-
formal, treasure-hunt atmosphere, with countless surprises. The star exhibits are Hogarth 's
satirical Election series and his merciless morality tale The Rake 's Progress , as well as the
alabaster Egyptian sarcophagus of Seti I rejected by the British Museum. Note that the mu-
seum is extremely popular, particularly on Saturdays, when there's a fascinating hour-long
guided tour (£5) at 11am, and on the candlelit evenings on the first Tuesday of the month
(6-9pm).