A rental property secretly transformed by the eccentric artist who lived there for three decades has been officially protected by the British government, five years after his death.

Shortly after Ron Gittins died in September 2019 at age 79, his family visited the apartment where he had lived since the mid-1980s in Birkenhead, just outside of Liverpool in northwest England.

What they found inside left them totally awestruck. Gittins had decorated almost every available surface in his home and painted numerous murals depicting historical scenes. Among the artworks were paintings set in Ancient Egypt and Georgian England, as well as fireplaces in the shape of a roaring lion’s head and a giant minotaur head, and there was even a Roman bread oven.

The discovery was particularly surprising as Gittins, who had limited formal artistic training, largely discouraged people from visiting his home, an apartment on the first floor of a Victorian duplex comprising three main rooms, a hallway, kitchen and bathroom.