Description
Soho House was once a regular meeting place for some of the greatest minds of the 18th century.
It was in the dining room of this elegant house that Matthew
Boulton, one of the country's first industrialists, entertained the
leading scientists and inventors of the industrial age.
Boulton’s guests included James Watt, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood and Joseph Priestly.
They were collectively known as the Lunar Society and Soho was one
of the venues where they discussed ideas and presented discoveries that
continue to affect our lives today.
Matthew Boulton lived in the house for 43 years until he died in
1809. During that time the area surrounding the house was developed
into a 200-acre estate and the country’s first major factory was
created.
Boulton’s Soho Manufactory made gilded ormolu decorative objects
like clocks and candelabra as well as silverware and the cheaper
Sheffield plate wares, which offered an affordable alternative to
silver for the growing middle-class.
What will I see?
Highlights at Soho House include:
- The dining room where members of the Lunar Society met to discuss their world-changing ideas
- The surviving sections of the first known under-floor central heating system since Roman times
- The ormolu Sidereal clock, which tells ‘star time’ – made by
Boulton & Fothergill but rejected by Russian Empress Catherine the
Great because it didn’t play a tune
- The picturesque 18th century garden, designed using Matthew Boulton’s original planting lists
| 
