A chance to discover the Holland Park Circle

A programme of guided walks offer visitors the chance to discover a unique group of studio-houses in West London.

Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896) completed his house and studio in semi-rural Kensington in 1866. Over the next thirty years, this peaceful spot would be transformed into a unique late-Victorian artists' colony, known as the 'Holland Park Circle'. The artists surrounding Leighton - Valentine Prinsep (1838-1904), George Frederic Watts (1817-1904), Sir Luke Fildes (1843-1918), Marcus Stone (1840-1921), Sir Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925), Colin Hunter (1841-1904), Sir James Jebusa Shannon (1862-1923) and William Burges (1827-1881) - commissioned leading architects to design their houses. Built to a grand scale, to exacting requirements, these houses would become powerful symbols of the artists' status, and fitting surroundings for their increasingly illustrious patrons and sitters.

Though highly successful pillars of the artistic establishment in their own day, many of these artists' reputations have since faded. However, all but two of their houses are still standing.

A programme of guided walks led by Leighton House is offering visitors the chance to explore the the exteriors of this unique group of houses, to discover why these artists chose this area - and what lay behind their selection of the architects who designed them.