Opening up the Soane: A Triumph of Restoration 

For Soane - every night was overnight at the museum. What a lucky visionary man.

The mind boggles at the successive curators, who, given one brief "Do not change anything", set about making disastrous changes!

Extraordinarily wonderful. As an Art Historian my favourite museum for over 30 years. Thank you so much for this magical tale.

If you go to London, you must take the time to seek out this little museum, you will not regret it. Lovely, exciting, surprising and intriguing. I was there in 2012 without knowing what to expect and with insufficient time to relish its treasures. I will go there again as soon as possible.

Helen's passion for this project is clear and the monumental effort taken to return all of this history simply could not have been done without her! What an incredible asset she has been for the Soane.

Soane was a genius and the modern day restorers are his apprentices,This a must see film it will take your breath away.

It is always comforting to know and understand that in so many museums, that admiration shall always take the best rooms as their own and totally disregard the wishes of the donor.

This series is incredible. An unexpected side effect of watching it has been my growing hatred of James Wilde. The man was a menace.

There aren't many who can say they have recreated a piece of art. This team can. The result is beyond magnificent.

Watching the guy with tiny column made me realise why I would never make a restorer. Whilst I understand the need to keep as much of the original as possible, the temptation to just level the broken piece off and stick it onto the new bit would have been overwhelming for me! Respect sir!

What a wonderful record of your fantastic restoration. Very uplifting to watch.

I really enjoyed this series. We’re going to be in the UK in December and we’ve already added this museum to our list. Job well done to all involved.

Wow, beautiful.

An absolute must when one has a day in Londo to pay a visit..it will be one of the most interesting,informative and worth while you have ever done..see it especially now!

One of the glories of late-Georgian London. Something not to miss.

Wonderful restoration, wonderful film. Thank you. Bravo to the restoration team!

Wonder? Delight? Joy!

A real joy to see this series about the restauration of the Soane Museum. Being an art historian one could wish to see more of this kind of masterly done documentaries.

What part of "do not change anything" did the initial curators not understand?!?

Absolutely glorious. Will watch it again. Thank you.

One of the many charms of this type of series is the discovery of artisans & specialties I never knew existed. I might have gone to my grave ignorant of Cork Modellers. And been far poorer for it. Seriously.

The brown floral tapestry is so beautiful 🤩

Wonderful effort

What an unbelievable gorgeous place... 🥰

Who did these people think they were? Destroying a space that was given with the intent that it was to remain the same. Now they’re having to spend SO MUCH MORE to restore what they carelessly threw away.

This series has been a joy to watch, and it's so fabulous to see the acknowledgement of the collaborative efforts of varied artisans carrying on traditional work, and how it really takes a village to get the best results. The Soane is now on my bucket list for when I visit England!

This is incredible. The restoration of the models was fascinating. Kudos to everyone who worked on this magnificent project 🎉

I absolutely love this film, I've always adored the house and I wasn't disappointed by this, well done, and thank you.

This is stunning. Thanks for sharing so much insight into what it takes to restore such a complex space!

Very interesting video, I had no idea how much restoration was done!

What a fascinating documentary. Next I am in London (from Aus) I shall add it to my list! (The guilding of the frame and its manufacture was the highlight for me!)

Thank you! Can't wait for my next visit to London to step into this amazing museum!

Magnificent insights into this walk-in work of art that is Sonae's house. Thank you!

Thanks very much for uploading these! Fascinating

fortunate that the crafting skills continue to be practiced

Model makers often use a pressure pot to extract the bubbles.......There are professional Pressure pots and the kitchen kind (Pressure Cooker) that come in a number of sizes....

Nicely done, what a labor of love for all.

All due credit to the remarkable team whose energy, craftsmanship, skill and dedication breathed new life into a deservedly magnificent museum

Loved this series. This is my absolute favorite museum in the world!

The amount of research and detail is mind-boggling!!

Big thanks to the filmmakers for doing such a lovely job on this program. :o)

Magical indeed. I’m looking forward to a visit to see the restorations. ❤❤❤

I've added many a thumbs up to the comments and have enjoyed and profited from the video. It remains puzzleing however how people of such hightened devotion to taste , authenticity and refinement ,can acquiesce such a numbing wall to wall background music

I love a good diorama model. Phew wish my hands could churn out wonders

Hopefully, I will be able to return to London to see this museum--among other things.

My eyes are welling up.

It's funny how they just totally disregarded the order to not change anything. The person who dismantled the model room was really clueless though. That's like the alter to Soane's profession. Good job with the restoration. What a fun project though. From decades of folly from past curators a whole new generation of craftsmen and tradespeople got to experience the old ways to put it back. So that's alright then. 😀

shows how little those left in charge that he trusted cared of the man and hes wishes. also wondering if the robbery of paintings from here were done before or after all this work. they had up dated the security and had 2 or 3 paid guards on site where it took more then one step to get in plus there were points that guards could set off alarms had someone gotten in. BUT, one guard didnt do as he was suppose to and by passed these security measures so thiefs got in tied up guards and had most of the night to go around and cut paintings from frames and get away. i think crooks may have been dressed as cops and instead of calling the station to check on them being there they just let them in.

Such exciting research.

I am just amazed at this series! It is wonderful to see this unfold wow

Thank you so much for this 💗👏👏💕🇦🇺🇦🇺💗💗💗💗💗💗💗👏👏👏👏👏

Now that's what I call "hoarding" with a purpose! 😃

Fantastic work.

Who cut the model of Pompeii in half? Outrageous.

"Familiarity breeds contempt," seems to apply to some curators.

I agree that the main structure should be returned to its original design. But maybe sone objects, like the plaster mouldings of arches, could be left in their current state. They're part of the buildings history and should represent what the building has been through in the last 200 years

c'est passionnant

Why would someone change everything when the agreement was clearly to leave it as is, but conserving it.

I wonder with his bequest why they were allowed to ruin it

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what a shame that people dismantled and or destroyed what was to be kept exactly as the owner left it.

Im curious, was Wilde ever reprimanded or penalized for destroying a whole section of a museum that he was entrusted to look after? Thats a whole story isnt it!

exhibits a surgeon's skill

It would be interesting to know, are this paintings originals or copies? some of them are sitting on the wall with light from outside, do not they get damaged from the light? I really like this videos well dun.

Was their anything James Wild didn't destroy?

Delicious...

What was up with Wilde? It’s bizarre. I would love to hear what his reasoning was.

So just how does someone get into cork modeling

I am totally shocked and disgusted that the early curators thought they could go against the wishes of the man who gave this treasure to the people of Britain and destroy the buildings and artefacts he left.

Looking at the items in the basement especially the placement of the sarcophagus wondered if he was a Freemason and indeed on 1 December 1813 he was initiated into the newly formed United Grand Lodge of England. I know no one will like what I have to say but I think there’s more to why he collected and displayed what he did than meets the eye; perhaps there was a reason beyond practicality why some things were removed or closed off.

Would Victoria and Albert have visited Soane’s home, before or after his death?

Whatever they did to the museum and it's rooms is nothing compared to demolishing the Bank of England !

I hope measures are in place to stop people pilfering objects! To say nothing of wretched 'activists' gluing themselves to a painting...

The fact that he had ancient Egyptian sarcophagus in his basement is truly despicable and sickening testament of British imperialism and cultural destruction of other nations.

Does anyone know who did the narration? Whoever it is, he sounds like Stephen Frye.

Rabbit skin glue ?

the only thing i think they should've done was to return Seti the 1st sarcophagus to Egypt where it belongs, far too many Egyptian artifact's where stolen from them and should be returned.

One can hope that any antiquities of questionable provenance will be repatriated.

Llowan?? What an unusual pronunciation !

While i admire the crafts and craftsmen this spirit of restoration is going too far. I think creating anew in similar style and same technique is more praiseworthy than finicking with glueing missing bits. That is why i like most the parts of this documentary that recreated objects from scratch like the wallpaper, that is absolutely remarkable. In contrast the plaster miniature temple models restoration with columns made of part old broken parts and new casting is ridiculous, it's wrong. The artist should be respected by allowing him to make the whole thing new.

wealthy dead hoarders. meh.