Following more than two years of painstaking restoration and refubishment, one of the most remakable houses in London is soon to reopen to the public. On Saturday 19th April the Royal Borough's Linley Sambourne House will reopen its doors, revealing impressive new visitor facilities and greatly enhanced public access.

From 1875, Linley Sambourne was the home of the Punch cartoonist and illustrator Edward Linley Sambourne, his wife Marion and their two children. Passed down from one generation to the next over the course of the following century, little was changed and the house has become a unique surviving example of a late Victorian London middle-class home. Almost all the original decoration remains intact and the rooms are filled with the furniture, objects and personal possessions that the Sambournes left behind. An archive of 135,000 diaries, papers, bills and letters also survives providing an exceptionally detailed picture of daily life in the house.

Linley Sambourne House is a unique resource. No other house of this date and type survives in London and almost no other historic houses in the country can match the completeness of the surviving house and collection matched so closely to an extensive family archive. A visit to the house will provide visitors with a unique experience of stepping back into the Sambourne's world to experience life in a middle class family home at the end of the nineteenth century.

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea funded the restoration project with additional support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Phillimore Estate.

Extensive work was carried out the fabric of the building including external repairs to roofs and gutters and complete redecoration. Internally the services were upgraded and new fire and intruder detection systems introduced. A team of specialist conservators carried out repairs to the delicate interior finishes including the wallpapers, stained glass windows and paintwork, removing layers of pollutants and ensuring the long-term surival of the interiors.

The basement of the house has been converted to form a visitor reception and education space including a shop, cloakroom and activity room with resources for schools. The resources created include replica costumes, a handling collection and a specially commissioned video film introducing the house, its contents and the Sambourne family.

On reopening, all access to the house will be by guided tour. Tours led by actors dressed in period costumes will run every Saturday and Sunday at 10.00am, 11.15am, 1.00pm, 2.15pm and 3.30pm during the open season, adding to the authentic atmosphere of the interiors and providing an insight into the life of the Sambourne Family. Tours can be booked at other times during the week by prior appointment. Special 'evening at home with the Sambourne family' events will use actors to recreate a typical evening at home with the family.

The Royal Borough Libraries and Arts Service also runs the nearby Leighton House Museum and the two houses will be operated in tandem with combined tours to both houses on offer and a series of events and activities that link these two outstanding houses together.

Ticket prices are: Adult £6, Concession £4 and Under 18's £1

Linley Sambourne House
18 Stafford Terrace
London W8
tel: 020 7602 3316