n the heart of Kensington, Leighton House brings renewed attention to the Arab Hall with a project that weaves together research, visual arts and contemporary storytelling. The Arab Hall: Past and Present is not simply an exhibition, but a layered reading of one of London’s most iconic interiors, where Victorian aesthetics meet Islamic decorative traditions in a dialogue that still feels strikingly relevant today.
The Arab Hall, Leighton House – Photo © Siobhan Doran, courtesy of RBKC
Created by the Victorian artist Frederic Leighton following his travels across North Africa and the Middle East, the Arab Hall was conceived as a space for experimentation and contemplation, built around an extraordinary collection of tiles from Damascus, Turkey and Iran. Today, it becomes the starting point for an enquiry that brings together art history, material culture and contemporary practice, restoring it as a living space open to reinterpretation.
The project unfolds through a new film commission by filmmaker Soudade Kaadan. In When the Tiles Spoke, the surfaces of the Arab Hall are given voice: the ceramics become narrators of a journey across centuries and geographies, blending magical realism with a dreamlike register. The result is an immersive narrative that turns the space into an active subject, one that speaks to the present through its own material memory.
Alongside the film, three site-specific installations and a free exhibition in the Tavolozza Drawings Gallery retrace the origins of the Arab Hall, highlighting the collaborative dimension of its original creation. Drawings, sketches and materials by George Aitchison, William De Morgan and Walter Crane reveal a network of expertise that anticipates many contemporary interdisciplinary practices, where craftsmanship and visual art overlap without hierarchy.
Atlas of an Entangled Gaze by Ramzi Mallat – Photo © Siobhan Doran, courtesy of RBKC
At a time when London is often explored through city-wide events such as Clerkenwell Design Week, Leighton House offers an alternative, essential stop on the cultural map. Away from the most familiar routes, it offers an itinerary that brings together history, design and research, inviting a reconsideration of historic interiors as still-active cultural devices. On view from 21 March to 4 October 2026, the project confirms the Arab Hall as a space of exchange between eras and sensibilities, where ornament becomes language and memory is translated into contemporary experience.
The Arab Hall: Past and Present, Tavolozza Drawings Gallery – Photo © Siobhan Doran
Photo credits: Siobhan Doran
