Leighton House, is the quirky former home cum studio of the painter and socialite, Lord Leighton; one of the most famous Victorian painters. George Aitchison, the architect, built it over almost 30 years, starting in 1865 and ending when Lord Leighton died in 1895.  It’s among a handful of small museums in London which offer that fascinating insight of the home of an artist as well as  his art collection.

From the outside the house resembles  an Italian Palazzo. The interior  is no less astonishing: the house is built around a two storey Arab type atrium decorated with more than a 1,000  brightly glazed tiles  bought by Leighton on his trips to the Middle East. In the middle of the hall is a fountain where Leighton and his guests were accustomed to retiring after  dinner to enjoy post-dinner drinks and cigars. The fountain is topped by a  gold-painted  dome and surrounded by columns carved with birds. The furniture throughout the house  is a mix of arts and crafts  and Oriental furniture.

On the first floor is Leighton’s studio/theatre. Note the  huge space with monumentally high ceilings, with a stage at  one end and a minstrel’s  gallery at  the other.  It was here that  Leighton installed a band for parties or worked on enormous  canvases. Don’t miss the wonderful view over the garden.

Opposite is the Silk Room where you can admire  examples of work by Leighton's fellow artists such as  Millais, Burne-Jones, Watts and Sargent, Albert Moore  and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, which show the technique they used. About  80 of Leighton's own paintings, as well as his small-scale sculptures and personal ephemera, are on display throughout the house.

Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), came from a well-off family and never had to worry about finances. He often went off on trips to  Europe and the Middle East and was used to socialising  with the who’s who of London. In 1855 Queen Victoria bought  his first major painting and just over 20 years later, in 1878, he was crowned  President of the Royal Academy of Arts.