Strawberry Hill to reopen to the public as a museum

At work on restoring Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole's flamboyant gothic revival fantasy in Twickenham Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Walpole created a 'little plaything house' – a fantasy of the middle ages with fireplaces, bookcases and ceilings modelled on the tombs of saints and kings Photograph: Andrew Urwin

It became the first gothic revival house in the world, inspiring countless imitations and giving the world the term 'Strawberry Hill gothic' Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

The style became the forerunner of all those Victorian town halls, churches and stations which define British townscapes Photograph: Andrew Urwin

According to Michael Snodin, ­curator of the Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill exhibition at the V&A, without Walpole's house, Augustus Pugin's Palace of Westminster would never have been built – although Pugin 'utterly despised' Walpole's lack of seriousness Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Walpole dated his interest in the gothic from seeing King's College chapel as an undergraduate at Cambridge, constructed when 'Art and Palladio had not reached the land nor methodised the Vandal builder's hand' Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

However, Strawberry Hill was hardly a faithful recreation of a medieval manor Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

The gothic era he plundered seemed to encompass all the centuries before Inigo Jones Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Walpole wanted theatrical effect, atmosphere and 'gloomth', not a time capsule Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Any period from the dark ages to the Jacobean was ripe for plagiarism Photograph: Andrew Urwin

The house became a museum to Walpole's expanding collection of art and relics, such as Queen Bertha's comb and the hair of Mary Tudor in a locket, though he was 'outbid for ­Oliver Cromwell's night cap' Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

When Walpole died in 1797 he left the house to his niece and it soon passed by marriage to the Waldegraves – and two successive heirs who turned out to be 'absolute gangsters' Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

However, the house was saved by Frances Braham, who had married both the rakehell Waldegraves. She went on to marry twice more and became seriously rich, allowing her to restore and extend the house Photograph: Andrew Urwin

By the turn of the millennium the Grade I listed house was so decayed that the World Monuments Fund included it among the 100 most endangered heritage sites of the world Photograph: Andrew Urwin

But thanks to the efforts of the Strawberry Hill Trust, and restoration grants from both English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the house is set to reopen to the public as a museum Photograph: Andrew Urwin

It will reopen on 2 October with a tea room for the first time, but public interest is such that the first couple of months are already booked out Photograph: Andrew Urwin