Sambourne House

Today the house is a fine example of middle-class Aestheticism; its influences can still be seen permeating throughout the house, from decorative Sunflower motifs in the stained glass windows, to the fine selection of William Morris wallpapers that hang within the rooms, through to the displayed collection of blue-and-white Chinese import porcelain.

This fascination led to Anne proposing the foundation of the Victorian Society in 1957, and in turn the continued preservation of the house largely as it had been lived in by Linley.

The house was then opened to the public as a museum which included the furniture, art, and decorative schemes retained from its original inhabitants, Linley Sambourne and his household.

[4] The archive is made up of personal papers relating to Edward Linley Sambourne, members of his family and their home at 18 Stafford Terrace.

Dating from 1815 to the present day it includes diaries, letters, legal and financial papers, photographs and ephemera which give insights into both Sambourne's professional and upper-middle-class family life in the later Victorian/Edwardian period.