Helen Dorey:

Yes, indeed, it was very foresighted of him to include that clause in the Act of Parliament. If he hadn't done it, there's absolutely no doubt that the arrangements in the Museum wouldn't have survived. Even as it was, there were late 19th century curators, working at a time where Soane's architecture was very unfashionable who made major changes to the Museum. And astonishingly, they were allowed to do so. Reversing their changes has been quite a large part of our restoration work. It is very good today to know that the listed buildings' process protects the Museum from any future damaging proposals because they simply wouldn't get permission.

If he hadn't done it (required the Museum to be kept as it was in the private Act of Parliament in 1833), there's absolutely no doubt that the arrangements in the Museum wouldn't have survived. Even as it was, there were late 19th century curators, working at a time where Soane's architecture was very unfashionable who made major changes to the Museum. Reversing their changes has been quite a large part of our restoration work.

Helen Dorey, MBE, Deputy Director and Inspectress at the Sir John Soane's Museum

Von Chua:

I think that may be one of the reasons why the UK's listed buildings that stand today are so rich and unique. The English Heritage operates at a level that I don't see in other places.

Helen Dorey:

The great advantage that we have, irrespective of the government in power, we have a protection structure that not just covers exteriors but interiors as well. In many countries, interiors are not protected. Our protection system in the UK is a strong one and it has been influential across the world.

…we have a protection structure that not just covers exteriors but interiors as well.

Helen Dorey, MBE, Deputy Director and Inspectress at the Sir John Soane's Museum

Interiors at the Sir John Soane's Museum. Image by Von Chua.

Von Chua:

With Opening up the Soane, restoring spaces within the Museum, as well as introducing flexible exhibition galleries and a shop, what was the main reason behind the introduction of the new spaces? Can you share the curatorial possibilities of these new spaces?

Helen Dorey:

Well, I think there were different kinds of new spaces. There were the newly restored spaces, and the intention behind those was of course to enhance the Museum, get works of art back into their proper position, and restore Soane's wonderful effects and arrangements. And part of Opening up the Soane was to restore the second floor of the Museum, where he had his model room, bedroom, bathroom etc. We did that and I think it's spectacular. We had all the evidence we needed to put those rooms back and it has added a whole new dimension to the Museum.

The main areas which you would probably call new spaces have been back-of-house, and the intention really was to improve the visitor experience. Being able to have a visitor route that ended with a really nice shop has been really helpful. And that shop is again like the exhibition galleries is in a beautifully restored historic interior, and it has helped us enormously to help ourselves by boosting our self-generated income.

Most of the new spaces are not specifically for curatorial uses. They're actually to facilitate access. We have one new structure which is a tiny little passageway, which is a modern take on a passageway that Soane had, which enables wheelchair users to go to the ground floor of the Museum. And that has made such a huge difference to us, along with the two lifts that we put in as part of the project which I think have been achieved with absolutely minimum impact on the Museum itself. The lifts have not only enabled wheelchair users to visit the whole of the ground floor but the internal lift helps us to move objects to the exhibition galleries. And obviously having those new display spaces has very much enhanced what we can do. We've got more space and so there's more room to move around, and the experience of visiting an exhibition in the Museum is now nicer - slightly more objects in each show and more space in which to see them.

And then we've been able to look after our collections better because as part of Opening up the Soane, we created new purpose-designed conservation studios, so we can do all our paper conservation on site, and quite a bit of frame conservation and cast conservation as well. That has been really fantastic. In addition to all this, before we did the Opening up the Soane project, we restored No. 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields (which I mentioned earlier was a third Soane house that we managed to buy it back in the 1990s because it had been sold after Soane's death). In there, we now house Soane's 30,000 drawings which were always loose, never framed and on show in the Museum. In his time they were in drawers and cupboards all over the house. Today they are beautifully kept in plan chests. We have a Research Library where scholars and anyone who is interested can book an appointment and come and see them. This provides a wonderful opportunity to share the collection with as many people as possible.

In there (No. 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields), we now house Soane's 30,000 drawings which were always loose, never framed and on show in the Museum. In his time they were in drawers and cupboards all over the house. Today they are beautifully kept in plan chests.

Helen Dorey, MBE, Deputy Director and Inspectress at the Sir John Soane's Museum