Leighton House Museum

I’ve lived in the area for ages and have known about Leighton House for even longer. Not sure why it’s taken me this long to finally visit the musuem. Anyhow, the current exhibition on «Victorian Obsession» finally drew me in (extended until 6 April 2015).
The museum is relatively small and the £10 entrance fee relatively steep but definitely worth a visit (discounts apply for Art Fund and National Trust members). The house is beautifully restored and opulently decorated — a rather privileged artist’s studio!
It’s the perfect destination combined with a stroll through nearby Holland Park. I did so on a Sunday afternoon and both the park and museum were overrun with families — a quieter mid-​week visit may be advisable if you prefer taking in the surroundings in peace and quiet.

A highlight of my trip to London as it really gave me a better insight into Frederick Leighton that no book could give me. Beautifully restored with lots of notes in each room — there’s also an app you can download with an audio tour — which highlight certain aspects or features within each room.
Most of his collections were sold on his death but the museum have done a fantastic job borrowing other complimentary collections. Please see other reviews which give more info on him which is why I’m not going into detail about it here.
The lighting is low but this helps to understand the lighting conditions he lived and worked in. So best to go on a bright day.
Would have been 5* but the garden was closed and I’d have liked to have seen the rear exterior of the building. Also the staff weren’t very helpful or customer focused, ignoring us to carry on a loud but private conversation. However don’t let that put you off as it’s worth at least an hour to view everything.

Budget about an hour to fully appreciate this one – the Leighton House Museum is a gem.
Come for the extensive collection of Islamic art, the paintings, a glimpse into the life of the eccentric Lord Leighton, or with an eye to the project of extensive and painstaking reconstruction and curation that went into converting the house into a museum. Every surface is busy with detail.
There’s a fascinating film showing in Leighton’s dressing room that describes the process of recreating trims and wallpapers for the house. A lovely way to spend a weekend afternoon after a morning in Holland Park.

Went to this place a couple of years ago and have a great memory of my visit. London has amazing museums such as the V&A, the British Museum, the Tate or the National Gallery but also many unknown place that are really worth a visit.
Sir Lord Leighton is a preraphaelit artist member of the Royal Academy both painter and sculptor, influenced a lot by Michelangelo and the Renaissance and left amazing pieces of art around the world. One of the most famous painting is in Philadelphia now but London still have some good one spread in few places.
Here you can visit his house, where he lived and used to work, the house he built for himself choosing colors, materials, design of everything. The result is quite amazing, really delicate and full of good taste. There is plenty of item and art that make you back in the past at the Victorian time where Ikea was not yet everywhere !
The mosaic room and the oriental style is beautiful, the sculptures and drawings too, when you finish the visit, you want usually to know more about Leighton.
Located in South Kensington it’s not far from other touristy places and shopping area.

What a neat little museum in Kensington! This is the elegantly preserved home of the late Lord Leighton, artist extraordinaire. Every room in the home is a treasure and in turn are stuffed with the treasured works of Lord Leighton and his friends. Paintings, sculptures, sketches, you name it. All nicely displayed in what is apparently their original state.
Borrow one of the tour guide iPods, which isn’t actually an audio guide but a guide of each room narrated by actors portraying Lord Leighton himself as well as his housekeeper. Sadly pictures are not permitted and there are folks patrolling the house looking out for flashes and the like. I was particularly impressed with the mantle-​less fireplace, which instead has a window above it. The flue goes off to one side and connects with a traditional chimney so that the room still has the central window.
Well worth the £5 entrance charge, it will take about an hour or two to slowly tour the home and enjoy the artworks. Don’t miss the amazing Arab Hall, which displays his Lordship’s collection several hundred Islamic tiles that he brought back himself from many trips to Syria. The fountain is quite peaceful. There is also a back garden (though I didn’t see any benches).
It is worth noting that Lord Leighton held the shortest hereditary peerage in history, dying unmarried one day after its award.

Leighton House was built between 1864 – 66 in The Royal Borough of Kensington. Stately facaded with richly hued brick, thick glass intricate windows, and crisp white details, its rather «normal» outer appearance was originally intended to be a symmetrical Italian Renaissance style home. But then one spies a seemingly out of place dome from outside which hides a trove of the most fantastically vibrant and stunning Islamic tiled rooms one is likely ever to encounter.
Really the pre-​eminent reason one pays a visit to LH is to see the Arab Hall which was added in the late 1870s. What fun it would be to actually be able to hang out there for an evening… As no figurative representations of gods are permissible in Islamic art the forms become geometric and highly stylized, such as with calligraphy. This leads to the beautiful designs of the tiles themselves as well as their arrangement and overall look of a building or in this case, room. William de Morgan was the tile artist and George Aitchison was the designer. Lord Leighton was a very well traveled and learned man who liked to impress his guests with evidence of his tours and knowledge.
The Arab Hall is also accented with alabaster capitals and columns which, at night, give off a translucent glow. Originally the fountain was white bottomed to reflect available light upwards but due to excessive leaking was replaced by its current black marble which was very much in vogue in the 1880s so it is period appropriate though not as it was at the time Leighton lived there. The viewing platform was said to have been brought back from Cairo. I’d sit with a hookah there for a while! (Wow-​so glad I saved all my notes from my visit!).
The former home of Frederic Lord Leighton, a renown 19^th century Classical painter and President of The Royal Academy, also showcases some amazing examples of ebonized woodwork, decorative objets (porcelain, glass, etc.) and furniture typical and yet unique to the High Victorian Era. They were an eclectic bunch!
Check hours in advance. Leighton House is not to far from High Street Kensington with its shops and restaurants so it is easy to find a good excuse to spend an hour or so there and then hit Marks & Spencers for some good picnic items.

Leighton House is currently closed for refurbishment but will reopen in 2009 better than ever. This is a fantastic venue to see how artists such as Lord Leighton and his comrades lived, worked, and loved in the 1800’s. The main gallery has been redone to look as close as possible to the way it looked when Leighton was lord and master of the house. Many of his original paintings and even more of his drawing and letters have been collected by the museum and are on display at the house. The main thing to see is Leighton’s personal collection of Syrian tiles. There is a lovely garden to walk around, and you can understand how Leighton felt so inspired while living here. Not only are Leighton’s masterpieces here but the house itself can be called a work of Leighton art because he along with Architect George Aitchison personally designed this house to his specifications. This is also a beautiful space for outside exhibitions to be held, weddings, and banquets.

Home to Lord Leighton, pre-​Raphaelite artist, and now a little museum near Holland Park. The house is ornately decorated and you need time to sit and gaze to take in the detail and breathe the cool air. Especially beautiful are the Eastern-​inspired tiled walls in deep blues. There are little fountains and peacock designs. There is a collection of Leighton’s drawings, some of his paintings hanging on the walls, and a garden restored to its original design.

Situated just off the western end of Kensington High Street, close to Holland Park, the Leighton House Museum is the former studio-​house of the Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830 – 1896).
Although Leighton did not regard himself as a Pre-​Raphaelite, his style nevertheless reflects close links with that movement. His paintings are sumptuous and detailed, depicting, in the main, classical themes.
Completed in 1866, the interiors reflect Leighton’s high Victorian tastes for the exotic, fusing European and Middle-​Eastern architecture. The highlight is the Arab Hall, with its astonishingly intricate decorative pattern of Islamic tiling, brough back from Leighton’s travels in the Middle East.
Other rooms, in more traditional styles, are hung with important paintings by Leighton and his contemporaries, including John Everett Millais, Edward Burne-​Jones and George Frederick Watts, as well as a Tintoretto. The collection forms a very manageable and high quality collection of pre-​Raphaelite art.
There is also a delightful, small garden at the rear, restored to its original design, open April-​September.
Nearest Underground stations are Olympia and Kensington High Street — both about 10 minutes’ walk away. Buses 9, 10, 27, 33 and 49 run close by (Stop: Commonwealth Institute).
Overall, this is a delightfully peaceful museum in a little-​known corner of London. Why not combine a visit with a stroll in nearby Holland Park?