Sir John Soane Museum, London

In April 2008 we held our very successful Conference entitled “Soane; colour and Light”. Thanks to the generous support of Tim Knox Director of the Sir John Soane Museum and his staff, we were able to use their newly refurbished building at 14 Lincolns Inn Fields as our venue. This building, adjacent to the existing Museum had only recently come back into the care of the Museum Trustees and required extensive repairs and reinstatement and was only just ready in time for our Conference; in fact there was, most appropriately, still a strong smell of paint in the building.
We had been very fortunate to attract a most impressive line-up of speakers for our day and this and the sadly limited space meant we sold out almost as fast as a Michael Jackson Concert! Indeed we could have happily filled the room three times over had space allowed and I am sorry that we could not accommodate so many of our members and supporters. However many of our speakers have kindly allowed us to reprint their papers in the next edition of Traditional Paint News so they have not lost out completely. The day ended up with a private guided tour around the Museum enabling us to see so many of the details that we had heard about during the day and was rounded off with a drink by candle light – a very special, informative and privileged day
The following morning we had arranged a trip to Pitzhanger in one of Soane’s few remaining buildings. But first we forgathered at Old St Pancras Church to pay our respects at the Soane family mausoleum. For those who have never been there I strongly recommend a quick visit. It is only five minutes walk from the newly refurbished St Pancras International Station and the mausoleum with its characteristic Soane “floating” ceiling is delightful and said to be the inspiration for Sir George Gilbert Scott’s famous red GPO telephone box. As an added bonus, also in the churchyard there is an extremely old tree whose roots have grown over and around the tombstones that were stacked around it when part of the church yard was cleared to accommodate the railway lines into the new St Pancras station. This rather grisly work was one of the first and last jobs of a young aspiring architect called Thomas Hardy, who shortly after decided his talents lay elsewhere.
We then visited St Pancras Station where Helen Hughes of English Heritage told the story behind the wonderful sky blue colour that has been used to decorate the roof. Articles by Helen about the blue and also about the Soane family mausoleum will be included in the 2009 issue of Traditional Paint News. The trip to Pitzhanger, tucked away in the depths of suburban Ealing, was very interesting and enabled us to see many of Soane’s characteristic touches at first hand. We were also able to shed some light on some of the wallpapers used in the house as they had been supplied by one of our members. A very interesting finish to our two day conference.