If you fancy wandering around a townhouse in West London that’s sure to give you serious home envy, then we’ve got just the spot. Deep in the heart of Kensington is an ordinary (albeit still very nice – this is Kensington, after all!) house that hides a world of art. The Leighton House Museum is a stunning, lesser-known spot in the city, with a delightful, art-filled museum tucked inside – and the artwork completely covers the walls!
But this isn’t just some ultra-wealthy resident’s opulent townhouse. Well, okay, it sort of is. But that’s because its identity as an art-filled spot stretches back to the 1800s, when it was home to artist and aristocrat Frederic Leighton. He decided that his house was the ultimate canvas, and set about filling every square inch of the place with artwork. It has since become a stunning museum with a world-class art collection.
Following £8 million worth of restoration works, the Leighton House Museum reopened in 2022 with an entirely new wing. And you know what that means – even more wall- and floor-space to cover with art! The wing boasts uncovered historical features and new artworks created specifically for the space.
Inside the Leighton House Museum
Inside the townhouse-turned-museum you’ll find paintings by Leighton’s contemporaries, such as Millais, Watts, and Sargent, as well as work by Frederic himself. While Leighton lived there, the site was constantly evolving. It acted as a studio for the artist, as well as a showcase, and he poured copious amounts of time and money into its constant refurbishment.
One of the house’s most striking features is the Arab Hall. Here, the walls are adorned with an impressive collection of tiles from Damascus, along with stunning gold mosaics. The tile collection is so impressive in this room, in fact, that it’s “as important as any collection of tiles held in the UK.”
There is also the Silk Room, which was completed just the months before Leighton’s death. This room was built expressly to be used as a picture gallery, with silk-lined walls flanking artwork by “many of the leading painters of the day: Albert Moore, John Everett Millais, George Frederic Watts, John Singer Sargent and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.”
But these are a mere drop in the bucket of the museum’s impressive selection of rooms, artworks, sights, and stories. During Leighton’s time in the house, there was so much artwork on display that Queen Victoria herself dropped by for a visit.
Frederic Leighton
So who is the man behind all of this? Frederic Leighton was an artist and aristocrat who was, by all accounts, a pretty colourful character.
Amongst his achievements was commanding a battalion in the British army composed entirely of artists. He also holds the record for the shortest peerage in British history. He was made a baron on January 24, 1896. And then he promptly dropped dead the very next day.
His decision to cover the surfaces of his home with art was prompted by his travels around the world, and by the output of his artist friends. Along his travels he saw sights that stuck with him so viscerally that he recreated them in his own home. This is the reason behind, for example, the Arab Hall. He would collect textiles, pottery, tiles, and more, and use them to recreate the places they came from within his home. Leighton’s house was covered in the press so frequently that it “came to embody the idea of how a great artist should live”.
If you fancy making a day of your visit to Leighton House, the Design Museum and Holland Park are both nearby. So you can also catch a bit more culture or have a lovely picnic, or both!