A house designed and owned by JMW Turner is to be restored and opened to the public after receiving a £1.4m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Turner built Sandycombe Lodge in Twickenham, London, in 1813, and used it as his country retreat until 1826.

But it has fallen into a poor state of repair in recent years.

It has only been open to the public for one afternoon a month, but will be open for 46 weeks of the year from 2016, once restoration work is finished.

Turner, one of Britain’s greatest painters, designed the building as a retreat from his central London studio and as a permanent home for his elderly father, a retired wigmaker and barber, who looked after the house and garden.

– more on the BBC - 7 January 2015