Thomas Wardle, (1831-1909) based in Leek, Staffordshire, swiftly earned a reputation as a leading dyer of textiles by using traditional methods and dyestuffs. William Morris, the foremost textile designer, was frustrated by problems he encountered when he tried to transform his designs on paper into printed textiles. Both men independently despaired at the outpouring of… Read more »

The two children of William and Jane Morris, Jane Alice (known as Jenny) and Mary (known as May) were born little over a year apart from one another; Jenny on the 17 January 1861, and May on the 25 March 1862. Both were born at Red House in Bexleyheath, where they would spend the first… Read more »

Pete Floud, in The Wallpaper Designs of William Morris, places William Morris’s early wallpapers in the context of the rather exuberant designs of the 1840’s having given way to changes inspired A W N Pugin and Owen Jones, who developed more formal designs with flowers, birds and trees represented in conventionalised forms in flat looking… Read more »

I started volunteering at Emery Walker’s house in January 2017 whilst I was completing the final year of my PhD in Digital Islamic art. My subject was very much informed by traditional Islamic art and architecture and its continuity through contemporary artistic practice in the UK. However, I havealso had a long interest in arts and crafts of all cultures and had been a fan of William Morris’ work from a young age. I started volunteering just as the house was being reinstated after its closure…

H&M’s latest collection featuring William Morris designs has flown out of their thousands of shops worldwide.It is floaty and floral and oh so attractively priced. Although it only launched this month, there is now a feeding frenzy online for the few items left. Morris is firmly back in fashion and, oh joy, machine washable. But hang on, should we be worried about this? What would Morris have made of this H&M Collection sold in his name? Is it true to his aesthetic and social vision and if not…

The Emery Walker Trust and The William Morris Society have joined forces to commission new BIDBI bags to promote their Arts & Crafts house museums.Both heritage sites have recently been restored and received funding to work together on joint projects to make their small sites more sustainable for the future. The tote bags, which have their distinctive new black and red logos on each side, reflect this closer connection and references the friendship and working collaboration between William…

Conservation cleaning in the small and intimate surroundings of Emery Walker’s House at 7 Hammersmith Terrace soon becomes quite personal. At the end of a long, careful and therefore tiring day there is the temptation to look up at the severe, but kindly Victorian demeanour of Emery Walker above the fire place and ask, ‘ Well, what do you think? Have I missed anything?’This is certainly no vast pile calling for armies of conservationists at considerable cost. Indeed, cramped for space and…

”Then we turned from the blossoms, and cold were they grown:In the trees the wind westering moved;Till over the threshold back fluttered her gown,And in the dark house was I loved.”This is the final stanza in William Morris’s poem Thunder In The Garden, from his book Poems By The Way, published in 1891 as some kind of scrap book with older texts, new poems written on the way to somewhere, for newspapers and directly for his political mission.”Thunder”, is one of the new ones, maybe written just…

It was a Thursday, we had just come off the Eurostar from Bruxelles for six days in London, and we seized the moment: ”Kelmscott is open today, wo-hoooo”. Straight off on the bus to Hammersmith.We found a very cool Brutalist town hall and a nice Polish café. And a Pooh-ish smackerel it was time for 26 Upper Mall, a magic address. Reaching the river, just when the sun broke through, was the journey’s best moment. Ebb. A rowing team was training at the beach. Morris used to watch the boat races…

In my last post, I mentioned how William Morris’ life really manages to find its way through the cracks into every part of your life. Let me tell you more about that.One of the perks of being a volunteer is that my days spent at The William Morris Society and Emery Walker’s House are varied. While I do love unboxing physical things, in a more metaphorical sense, this volunteer approach allows me to uncover all sorts of other information too.In my other, non-volunteering life, I am an Arts…