The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers

Leighton House Visit

I am a former resident of Kensington, having had the pleasure of living there, until very recently, for 8 years.  I had heard of the Leighton House Museum in Holland Park, and had always had it on my list of things to do and see, but somehow never got around to doing so.  I was therefore very enthusiastic about joining the Tax Advisers’ visit to Leighton House on 22 May.  We started off the meetup with lunch, coffee and cakes at the nearby Gail’s patisserie on Kensington High Street, and then joined our tour of the house, led by a highly knowledgeable guide.  Leighton House is honestly jaw-dropping in every respect.  Apart from the obvious beauty of the interiors (the Arab Hall, with its teal/turquoise tiles, gilded domed ceiling, and grand staircase is quite breath-taking), there are curiosities and inventive touches in almost every room: I had never seen a fireplace directly underneath a window before, yet there are two in view in the house.  The tour finished upstairs, in Lord Leighton’s gallery and studio, a large and beautiful space that seemed like a combination of the Wigmore Hall and a viewing room from the National Gallery, with its own architectural idiosyncrasies (an ante-chamber with a fireplace, for Lord Leighton’s models to warm-up, and a mezzanine that allowed him to paint huge canvases). The planned walk in Holland Park afterwards was called off due to rain, but it was very good to see familiar faces and meet some for the first time, and I think we all really enjoyed the excursionary feeling of this meetup. 

Dean Ryan