Leighton House Museum, London

Leighton House Museum is both an historic home and an art museum, created for the painter Frederic Leighton, who also led the Royal Academy. Its remarkable feature is the Arab Hall: an ornate interior formed around tiles and other objects Leighton acquired during journeys through the Near East. Notice the tiled passage as it leads into the hall, then the small fountain set into the floor beneath the decorated dome.

The room also brings together older Islamic-inspired elements and Victorian craftsmanship. Its tiles include examples from Damascus and Turkey, while carved latticework, gilded bird-shaped capitals, mosaic decoration and marble work complete the setting. George Aitchison designed the house for Leighton, and the building grew in stages from 1866 to 1895, adding studios, galleries and the Arab Hall.

Leighton worked here and created Flaming June in the studio; that celebrated painting returned to this room on loan in 2016. The museum’s collection also includes 81 oil paintings by Leighton, alongside works by artists such as John Everett Millais and Edward Burne-Jones. The house has welcomed the public since 1929, preserving an unusually personal meeting of home, workplace and richly collected interior.