LAVISH LEIGHTON HOUSE

What better location to have the WOOLF studio photo shoot in than the fabulous and famous Leighton House in Kensington, London, one of the most remarkable houses of the nineteenth century. We had been asked by various design press publications to contribute images of our team, which would work alongside articles that had been written about us and also by us about our work. We wanted to shoot a set of images which encapsulated and represented a glamorous inspirational interior. We selected a long standing favorite, Leighton House for its remarkable historical exquisiteness, where a number of really extraordinary design influences coalesce into a timeless beauty.

Leighton House was the former home of the Victorian artist and style-innovator, Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896). Surprisingly, Leighton House is very modern in its approach to design. Architect-Designer George Aitchinson built the scheme to Leighton’s precise requirements and employed the finest and most creative craftsmen of the day to deliver a diverse project with an exceptionally detailed design. In doing so, he had a common approach with our modern-day execution of a contemporary interior. The house is now a fascinating museum containing a collection of paintings and sculpture by Fredric Leighton and his contemporaries of the Holland park circle.  Explore WOOLF historic projects.

The house was extended and embellished over the 30 years that Leighton lived in it. From modest beginnings Leighton House evolved into and was referred to as a 'private palace of art’. The Arab Hall with its grand golden dome, intricate mosaics and walls lined with beautiful Islamic tiles explores Turkish and Syrian interiors. 

The Arabic opulence is a sharp contrast with the beautifully elegant Silk Room and the lavish, red Victorian dining room. The vast painting studio was at the time, considered one of the sights of London. It is hung with paintings at different stages of completion. The construction of the space plays strongly with contrasts of light and height by using the great north window, which overlooks the elegant English country garden, as a focal point

Built to Leighton’s precise requirements, the house was extended and embellished over the 30 years that he lived in it. From modest beginnings it grew into a ‘private palace of art’ featuring the extraordinary Arab Hall with its golden dome, intricate mosaics and walls lined with beautiful Islamic tiles. Upstairs, Leighton’s vast painting studio was one of the sights of London, filled with paintings in different stages of completion, the walls hung with examples of his work and lit by a great north window.  Many of the most prominent figures of the Victorian age were entertained in this room; including Queen Victoria herself who called on Leighton in 1859. But Leighton lived alone in his palace, occupying the house’s only bedroom on the first floor

Leighton House Museum is surrounded by a group of other studio-houses, all of which were built during the second half of the nineteenth century. This group provides a unique insight into the wealth, status and taste of successful artists in the Late-Victorian period. Explore WOOLF historic projects.

History of the House 

Leighton acquired the plot for his house in 1864 and began making plans for its construction. For a number of years, he had harboured the idea of building a purpose-built studio-house and had an 'old friend' in mind to act as his architect.

 Leighton's Architect

George Aitchison (1825-1910) first met Leighton in Rome in the early 1850s. He was the son of an architect and the family practice had specialized in wharves, warehouses, docks and railway architecture. When Leighton commissioned him, Aitchison had designed no houses and would be responsible for just a single further example in the future. Nevertheless, his involvement with Leighton’s house extended over 30 years and changed his career. Through his work for Leighton he was engaged by a series of wealthy and artistically-inclined clients to remodel and decorate the interiors of their London homes. Sadly, very little of this work has survived and Aitchison's reputation has largely gone with it.  But as both Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Aitchison was a prominent and respected figure in the architectural world of the late nineteenth century. Explore WOOLF historic projects.

The Arab Hall Extension: 1877-81

Leighton travelled to Turkey in 1867, to Egypt in the following year and to Syria in 1873. On each of these trips he collected textiles, pottery and other objects that were later to be displayed in his house. However, the trip to Damascus in 1873 laid the foundations for the wonderful collection of tiles that line the walls of the Arab Hall extension. Further examples were collected for Leighton by others, including the explorer and diplomat, Sir Richard Burton. 

In 1877, Leighton began the construction of the Arab Hall. This was an ambitious and costly undertaking. The model was an interior contained in a 12th-century Norman palace called La Zisa at Palermo in Sicily. Aitchison and Leighton brought together a group of their contemporaries to contribute to the project; the potter William De Morgan, the artist Walter Crane, the sculptor Edgar Boehm and the artist and illustrator Randolph Caldecott were all involved. The mosaics and marbles and skilled craftsmen were all sourced in London, although Crane’s design for the gold mosaic frieze was made up in Venice and shipped to the site in sections. 

The collection of tiles, mostly from Damascus and mostly dating from the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, which are as important as any collection of tiles held in the UK. Explore WOOLF historic project

The Winter Studio: 1889-90

The problem of winter smog and fog was a concern for many artists whose year was focused on the submission of their work to the Royal Academy at the end of March or early April. Leighton’s solution was to commission a large winter studio to be added at the east end of his main studio. Effectively a greenhouse on legs, the Winter Studio was supported by pairs of substantial cast iron columns.

The Silk Room: 1894-5

The last addition to the house was completed only in the months before Leighton’s death. Built on the first floor of the house, on what had previously served as a roof terrace, the Silk Room was designed as a picture gallery to house Leighton’s expanding collection of paintings by his contemporaries. The walls were lined with a green silk and the artists represented included many of the leading painters of the day; Albert Moore, John Everett Millais, George Frederic Watts, John Singer Sargent and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

'He built the house as it now stands for his own artistic delight. Every stone of it had been the object of his loving care. It was a joy to him until the moment when he lay down to die.'

Leighton’s sisters in a Letter to The Times, 26 January 1899