What better background for a beautiful painting than one of the most stunning buildings in Redbridge?

Ilford Recorder: Tea room designer Sadia Ur-RahmanTea room designer Sadia Ur-Rahman (Image: Archant)

Valentines Mansion hosted local artists including painter Jason Rose and stained glass artist Lisa Atkin as it threw its doors open after being closed through the winter.

The Love Yourself at Valentines event also included beauty treatments and massages on Sunday.

Meditation, psychic readings and meditation were on offer to help people relax and unwind.

The mansion in Emerson Road, Ilford, is gearing up for a season of events and performances.

The reopening coincided with the Valentine’s Day weekend but historian Georgina Green said the stately home has no romantic links.

An antiquarian back in the 1700s who lived on the former estate, said a “cottage inhabited by a poor family of the same name of Valentine” once stood there.

By the mid-18th Century, the grand home was referred to “Valentine House”.