Leighton House

Leighton House is the former home and studio of Frederic, Lord Leighton, the leading painter of the late Victorian age and President of the Royal Academy. Built from 1866 to the designs of the architect George Aitchison and extended over three decades, it is the only artist's studio-house of its kind open to the public in London. A multi-year restoration completed in October 2022 returned the rooms to full colour, reinstating the silk-hung walls, the ebonised woodwork and the collections of Islamic tile and Old Master drawings that Leighton assembled around himself.

At its centre is the Arab Hall, a domed and gilded chamber lined with 16th- and 17th-century Syrian and Iznik tiles around a black marble fountain, beneath a golden mosaic frieze. Beyond it the house opens into the crimson Dining Room, hung with blue-and-white porcelain, and rises to the great Studio on the first floor: a double-height room with a gilded apse and a vast north-facing window, where Leighton painted. Exclusive hire gives a private party the run of all of it.

The house takes one event at a time and always as a whole. Drinks receptions gather in the Arab Hall and spill into the walled garden in summer; seated dinners are laid in the Studio for up to sixty, or in Leighton's own dining room for a table of eighteen. Catering is handled by the museum's appointed partner and events run into the evening. For a private dinner, reception or wedding in Kensington, few rooms in London carry this much atmosphere.