Yes really, it is a gem!
Thank you to my friends’ suggestions to visit unfamiliar places in familiar locations.
Walking east from Kensington Olympia station, you can’t help but admire the mansions that line the streets, en route to the home and studio of 19th century artist Fredrick Leighton. Leighton House is tucked away amidst the red-brick grandeur of north Kensington and unlike any Victorian home I had visited.
The dome hints at what’s inside
Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) was a painter, sculptor and public figure who lived at 12 Holland Park Road. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter, that I must confess was largely unfamiliar to me.
Throughout his life he was surrounded by art and studied under the best tutors and painters, so it was no surprise that with his fathers fortune, he devoted his entire life to art, home improvement and collecting beautiful things.
"My parents surrounded me with every facility to learn drawing, but strongly discountenanced the idea of my being an artist unless I could be eminent in art".
Forget the velvet upholstered, gloomy, fern-infested Victorian interiors
From its first construction in the 1860’s up until shortly before Leighton’s death, his studio-house was a constant home improvement project. Absorbing large amounts of his time, money and effort, the house combined spaces for living, working and entertaining and to display his amazing collections.
Happily we fell in with what exemplifies how a tour guide can transform a visit: graciously extended an introductory ‘half an hour highlights tour’ to over an hour of patiently answering questions and pointing out all manner of unexpected and delightful detail. Thank you Lizzie!
Forgot the home-office garden extension, a trip to Damascus in 1873 was what really transformed the walls of the Arab Hall extension.
The collection of 16th & 17th century Damascus tiles are as unexpected as they are an important collection held in the UK. The blues, greens and gold reflect the sunlight and it’s hard not to feel as though you’ve been transported 3,000 miles east.
This is something I’d expect to see in the V&A museum, not here in a west London house. There was a discussion about the provenance of these tiles given Leighton and his contemporaries lived at a time when the Victorians brought back booty from North Africa and the Middle East. It was unresolved.
Thankfully this statue of Narcissus isn’t overlooking the small Arab Hall pool, but the blue tiles represent the pool where he fell in love with his own image. It sets the tone.
Regularly featured in the press, this is the kind of aspirational home that must have been the envy of the middle classes looking for ideas to brighten their gloomy Victorian homes.
At the top of the house is his last project, the silk-lined Silk Room, designed as a gallery to house Leighton’s expanding collection. I was pleased to see amongst the Nile and Damascus scenes, two Chiltern Hills views from Bedfordshire!
Be sure to get on Lizzie’s tour
Despite London attracting millions of visitors each year, there are thankfully still places not on the radar, offering old-school experiences and relieving pressure on the zone one visitor attractions. This really is a hidden gem, and worth a visit. Be sure to get on Lizzie’s tour!
In 1927 the ownership of Leighton House was transferred to The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the council should be congratulated for how the site is managed and made accessible today.
All the images are copyright of Mary Tebje. Prints are available to buy.
Links you may find useful
Step into a painters world at Leighton House, London.
The nearby Sambourne House, once the home of artist and Punch illustrator Linley Sambourne is worth your time. Not quite as dazzling, but full of wonderful treasures.
For those business owners and comms managers looking for original and seasonal images to enhance your marketing comms, please get in touch as I quite possibly have images you could use from my new micro-seasonal online library.
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It’s a wonderful house. A little known treasure. I visited a couple of times when I lived in London, but didn’t have a tour. The visits were still really interesting though