Golden Age of Architecture: Library Visits

Spend an hour in the Soane Museum Research Library looking at drawings with our expert curators of in celebration of our latest online exhibition 

To coincide with our new online exhibition, A Golden Age of Architecture: Rare Elizabethan and Jacobean Drawings by Thorpe and the Smythsons, we are delighted to welcome visitors for an exciting opportunity to visit our Soane Museum Research Library with Manolo Guerci, co-curator of the exhibition, and Frances Sands, the Museum’s Curator of Drawings and Books. Together, we will peruse a selection of drawings from the volume of John Thorpe (1590s-1620s), which, alongside the Smythson collection at the RIBA, are the most important British architectural drawings of their time. Soane acquired the Thorpe volume at auction in 1810 and they are the earliest British architectural drawings in Soane’s collection. These drawings are not regularly on display to the public and we are excited to share them with visitors at this exclusive event.

There are three sessions: 10.30 – 11.30 am; 12 noon – 1 pm; 2.30 – 3.30 pm, with 9 spaces per time slot.

About the speakers
Dr. Manolo Guerci is an architectural historian and conservationist educated as an architect in around Europe. He is a Reader at the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of Kent, where he leads the PhD Programme. His interests and expertise focus particularly, though not exclusively, on the Early-Modern Period. His latest monograph on 'London's "Golden Mile". Great Houses of Strand. 1550-1650' (PMC/YUP 2021) received the first 2023 HBA (History of British Art) prize for a  single-authored pre-1600 book, while his current projects include a new critical edition-cum-catalogue of the ‘Book of Architecture of John Thorpe’ (c.1565-1655), at Sir John Soane’s Museum, alongside a virtual exhibition co-curated with Dr. Olivia Horsfall Turner.

Dr Frances Sands is Curator of Drawings and Books at Sir John Soane's Museum. She has worked at rhe Museum since 2010, first as Catalogue Editor, tasked with cataloguing the office drawings collection of Robert and James Adam – a vast project which is still ongoing. In 2016 she was appointed the Curator of Drawings and Books, taking responsibility for the Soane Museum’s wider collection of 30,000 drawings and 7,000 books. She has curated various exhibitions and publishes and lectures widely. Since 2010, Fran has also served as a Trustee of the York Georgian Society, the Mausolea and Monuments Trust, the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, and sat on the advisory committee for the Grinling Gibbons Society’s Tercentenary exhibition.

About the event
There are three sessions, at 10.30 – 11.30 am, 12 noon – 1 pm and 2.30pm – 3.30pm. They will take place in the Research Library, which is located at Number 14, Lincoln's Inn Fields.  Please enter via Number 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields, where we will have a list of names on the door. Your confirmation email serves as your ticket. 

We are in a Grade I listed, 19th-century building, so access is not always straightforward. If you require step-free access or extra assistance, please contact us in advance of your booking on admin@soane.org.uk or 020 7405 2107.