91. Artist in Residence: reopening LEIGHTON HOUSE with Curator Daniel Robbins and artist Shahrzad Ghaffari

Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

This week we’re talking about two of London’s most magnificent Victorian houses, Leighton House and Sambourne House in Holland Park. Leighton House, studio-home of the eminent Victorian artist Frederic Lord Leighton, has just reopened after an £8 million redevelopment along with nearby Sambourne House, the family home of Punch cartoonist Edward Linley Sambourne.

We talk to Daniel Robbins, Senior Curator of both houses and to the Iranian artist Shahrzad Gaffari, who’s hand-painted an 11-foot high textured mural around the curved wall of Leighton House’s brand new helical staircase. Shahrzad tells us that her mural is inspired by the 13th Century poet Rumi and, with its bright turquoise motifs which echo the tiles in the Arab Hall, the work represents the present and future of the house, continuing to deepen our knowledge of and understanding of eastern culture.

A new exhibition space in Leighton House is now showcasing the work of the Holland Park Circle of artists, to which Lord Leighton belonged, while the new basement has a display of Leighton’s exquisite drawings – there are 700 belonging to the house. You can see Leighton’s studio exactly as it would have been, as well as the Arab Hall and the other public areas, full of mosaics, tiles, pottery and artefacts which he brought back from his travels in Egypt, Turkey and Syria.

Walking into Sambourne House is to be fully immersed in a Victorian family home while Leighton House is now a lively destination and gathering point with a new café overlooking the garden. Both are well worth a visit so listen in to hear about what’s in store at both of these great historic homes.