Linley Sambourne House

Linley Sambourne House is a remarkably well-preserved late Victorian town house, complete with almost all its original interior decoration and contents. Stepping through the front door takes visitors back in time, offering an astonishingly detailed and authentic look at the daily life of a late Victorian family.

From 1875, the house was home to the 'Punch' cartoonist book illustrator an photographer Edward Linley Sambourne (1844 - 1910), his wife Marion and their two children. Immediately after moving in, the Sambournes embarked on a programme of alterations and redecoration. Their conventional middle-class house was turned into a suitably aesthetic home for an aspiring artist, with Morris wallpapers, stained glass windows and Benson light fittings.

Following two years of painstaking restoration and refurbishment of the whole house, new visitor facilities have been created in the basement, including an audio-visual film which introduces the Sambourne family and their extraordinary home.

Access to Linley Sambourne House is via the basement entrance. The house is arranged over five floors with steep steps both externally and internally. Regrettably no wheelchair access is possible.

Facilities Shop, an audio-visual introduction to the house, cloakroom and toilets. No cafe facility.