iSir John Soane's MuseumHolborn
Michael Landy: Future Ruins
Michael Landy's meticulous watercolour and pen drawings imagining iconic buildings, including Soane's own museum, as overgrown future ruins.
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You walk in and Michael Landy's own face is waiting above a fireplace, drawn over two and a half months with a mirror. Elsewhere he has drawn the building you're standing in as a ruin.
The series started here. Joseph Michael Gandy's 1798 watercolour of Soane's Bank of England as a Roman ruin is in the same building as Landy's version, hollowed out with a Union Jack still flying. Around them are watercolour and pen drawings of the New York Stock Exchange, Chatsworth, Mussolini's Palazzo della Civiltà, a run of an abandoned Mar-a-Lago, and the Ilford house Landy grew up in. In 2001 he destroyed everything he owned; now he's hanging in a house where every surface is covered in someone else's things.
Artlyst praised his "incredible draughtsmanship" and called his London-after-Doré Thames view "a beautiful and covetable capriccio". Entry is free with no booking, Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm (last entry usually 4:30pm). The house is small and popular, so you may wait to get in.
Look for
Broken Column
Downstairs, under an oculus near Soane's own column of salvaged fragments, a column of stacked outdoor litter bins teeters, tags and stickers still on, with rubbish flowing out of them.
The Bank of England, twice
Gandy's 1798 watercolour shows Soane's Bank as a Roman ruin; Landy's version hangs beside it, hollowed out, with a Union Jack flying over the decaying façade.
The Soane as a ruin
Oh! What a falling off do these ruins present (2026) imagines the museum you are standing in as a ruin, in watercolour and permanent pen.
Mar-a-Lago, abandoned
A series of watercolour and pen works pictures Trump's Florida club as an abandoned building.
Self Portrait at the Age of 62
A large pencil drawing of Landy's own face, included because he sees ageing lines as another ruin, like cracks in old mortar.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want Landy's big installations: this is drawings, plus one bin sculpture downstairs.
With kids
Prams have to be left outside, within the museum gates; baby slings and carriers are welcome inside.
Also at Sir John Soane's Museum
On now nearby
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Image credits
8
- Michael Landy: Future Ruins© Michael Landy. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Prudence Cuming Fine Art Photography.
- Art deco: the golden age of poster designCourtesy of London Transport Museum
- Salman Toor: Someone Like You© Salman Toor; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Genevieve Hanson
- Sir John Soane's MuseumSarah Smith / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- London Transport MuseumColin Park / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Courtauld GalleryAnthony O'Neil / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- British MuseumHam / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- London MuseumMatt Brown / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0