Curator Tour: Recovering Leighton House

About the tour

Leighton's artist studio home was built from the 1860s onwards and is renowned for the richness of its high Victorian interiors. But the appearance of the house today is the result of several decades of painstaking recovery and recreation, following Leighton's vision.

'He built his 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

Join Senior Curator, Daniel Robbins in an exclusive tour as he time-travels through the last few decades of Leighton House, from the whitewashed interiors of the post-war period to the splendour of the present day.  Daniel has led the museum's major restoration (2008-2010) and its latest award-winning refurbishment (2018-2022)  and he will share fascinating insights of both projects. 

Book tickets

 Take a sneak peek of  the dreamy interiors at Leighton House:

Watch Step into a painters' world 

Please note that the tour does not include access to the exhibition Victorian Treasures from Cecil French and Scott Thomas Buckle.

Meet Daniel Robbins

Daniel Robbins is the Senior Curator of two of London’s most significant house museums, Leighton House and Sambourne House.  He was responsible for the award-winning project to restore the historic interiors of Leighton House completed between 2008-2010 and he has also successfully led the Hidden Gem to National Treasure redevelopment focused on the additions made to the building in the twentieth century . Formerly with Glasgow Museums, he has organised many exhibitions and contributed to numerous catalogues and publications around nineteenth-century art, architecture and design. Daniel is an accredited lecturer for the Arts Society and has lectured across the UK and internationally including the Frick, New York and the Ponce Museum in Puerto Rico, where Leighton’s celebrated Flaming June can be found.

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