Leighton House

Leighton House stands in Holland Park, a quiet corner of west London. Built between 1866 and 1895 for the painter Frederic Leighton, it began as a modest studio-home and grew into a grand showcase of Victorian taste. The architect George Aitchison shaped each addition over three decades, starting with red Suffolk bricks and Caen stone. A striking feature is the Arab Hall, lined with tiles bought in Syria and Turkey, its domed ceiling painted in deep blues and golds. The house also contains a winter studio, a picture gallery, and a restored garden. In 1929 it opened to the public as a museum, later winning a European heritage award in 2012. The museum holds eighty-one oil paintings by Leighton, including his famous Flaming June. Other works by Pre-Raphaelites such as Burne-Jones and Millais share the walls. Among the smaller pieces are drawings, watercolours, and sculptures like Athlete Strangling a Python. Personal items once belonging to Leighton are also displayed, alongside a relief by Antonio Rossellino and a sketch model for Eros by Alfred Gilbert. The building itself reflects Leighton’s travels and friendships, from the gilded capitals carved by Randolph Caldecott to the mosaic frieze designed by Walter Crane. A recent refurbishment added new galleries, a café, and step-free access. Visitors walk through the original studio with its north-facing window, then pass into the Arab Hall where a small fountain plays beneath walls of lustre tiles. The Perrin Galleries, added in 1929, now show changing exhibitions. A spiral staircase leads to a circular mural by Shahrzad Ghaffari, linking old and new parts of the house. The garden, restored in the refurbishment, offers a calm space beside the café. Outside, the Holland Park Circle of artists’ homes forms a quiet enclave. Inside, the house remains a rare record of a 19th-century artist’s life and vision.