A PRIVATE PLACE OF ART; LEIGHTON HOUSE

Built in the 1860s, Frederic Leighton’s studio-house in Kensington was extended and embellished over the next thirty years. A relatively modest home was transformed into a palace of fine and decorative art. New fame came to the house with the construction of the exotic Arab Hall, lined with Islamic tiles collected on Leighton’s travels. Daniel Robbins is Senior Curator, Museums with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, responsible for two of the most significant house-museums, Leighton and Sambourne. Author of the guide to Leighton House, he led the award-winning project to restore its historic interiors (2008-2010) and its subsequent £9.6 million refurbishment which re-opened to great acclaim in 2022.

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Booking is not required. Guests/visitors are welcome for a small charge (£8) payable on the door.

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Daniel Robbins

Daniel Robbins is Senior Curator, Museums with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is responsible for two of London’s most significant house museums: Leighton House and Sambourne House. Formerly with Glasgow Museums, he has organised many exhibitions and contributed to numerous catalogues and publications around nineteenth-century art, architecture and design, including the authorship of the companion guide to Leighton House. He was responsible for leading the award-winning project to restore the historic interiors of the house completed between 2008 and 2010 and for the subsequent £9.6 million refurbishment of two unsympathetic twentieth-century additions made to the museum. Completed in October 2022, the house reopened to great acclaim.