Wiliam Morris was a passionate advocate of Persian textiles and instrumental in convincing the Victoria & Albert Museum to purchase the world famous Ardabil carpet.Measuring 38′ long by 18′ wide, it is an extremely fine specimen bearing the following inscription by the weaver:“I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold. There is no protection for my head other than this door.The work of the servant of the threshold Maqsud of Kashan in the year 946.”So it is apt that Arts & Crafts…

Life as an archive and cataloguing volunteer is about more than just rummaging through unseen items.Emery Walker’s House at 7 Hammersmith Terrace is fairly unique among historical houses because it still feels very much like a home. It’s not merely a recreation of what could have been, but is a reflection of how its cross-generational inhabitants really did use it as a space in which to live.And like any home, Emery Walker’s House has collected a plethora of knick-knacks over the years. As a…

Hello!I’m Sally Roberson; I’m an embroiderer & this is my first textile blog for the Arts & Crafts Hammersmith website. Ever since I was young I’ve got more & more interested in (or obsessed by, if you listen to my friends) the designs of William Morris and his friends, starting from when I was a penniless student in the 1960s and found myself, one wet Monday morning in Manchester, with several hours to kill while I waited for a train. The City Art Gallery was the obvious choice; it’s there that…

As a volunteer cataloger, I have spent some weeks engrossed in the Arthur Halcrow Verstage archive collection, acquired by The William Morris Society in 2005. This resource not only reveals fascinating details about the life and work of William Morris, but also exposes the passionate zeal he inspired in his devotees long after his death.Arthur Halcrow Verstage (1875-1969) was one these devotees. An architect who spent much of his career in the public sector, he was a student at the Royal Academy…

I’ve always had a soft spot for Emery Walker’s House. My connection to it goes back to 2001, soon after the future of the house was secured but well before it opened to the public. I began a five year, part-time stint as the Conservation Cleaner. As I swept, dusted and hoovered every nook and cranny I imagined the Walker family and Elizabeth de Haas inhabiting the house over the previous century. If only walls could talk! The ‘spirit of place’ was palpable. I had the sense that this was still…

Here at the library at Kelmscott House we’re picking up speed again with the cataloguing project after last year’s building work.The William Morris Society library has about 3,000 books, articles and other material all about the life and influences of Morris on his contemporaries and in the years since his death.The collection contains editions of Morris’s own works – poetry, literature, lectures, political writings, translations of Icelandic sagas and his letters – and material on all other…

Last month, (on June 21st), we were delighted to welcome Geoff Coleman back to Kelmscott House. Geoff made the library bookcase dedicated to Eric Heffer, MP*, installed in 1994, and this was the first time he had been back to look at it.Shortly after the death of Eric Heffer in 1991, Geoff was contacted by the Society’s librarian, David Rainger, with the idea of making a memorial bookcase. This had been designed by Society member John Kay and was to be made of English oak. Geoff, a retired…

Dear readers, member 7432 here.The world is a violent place. Since the last time I wrote there have been terror and disasters in London and elsewhere. Months have passed since my last blog. What have I been doing, apart from longing to dig into my Morris books and dream about dreamy wallpapers or perfect tea at The William Morris Gallery, some day without deadlines, clocks ticking and terrible news from the world? Most of us in the West are OK, it’s a lot worse elsewhere. I have felt somewhat…

Archive Volunteer, Philip Milnes-Smith, was part of a fantastic team of volunteers helping our archivist catalogue the Papers of Sir Emery Walker, Engraver, Photographer, Printer, Typographer. The catalogue will be available as a digital resource on this website by the end of 2017, so do keep coming back to visit it. Here Philip writes about some of his fascinating finds.In December 2016, I started volunteering, one day a week, with The Emery Walker Trust, because experience in the archive…

Arts & Crafts Hammersmith Project Manager, Simon Daykin muses on the picturesque riverside garden at 7 Hammersmith Terrace.We talk a lot about Emery Walker’s and Kelmscott House and their interiors and collections, but both houses boast further hidden gems quite literally on their doorsteps.Dorothy Walker, Emery’s daughter and resident until her death in 1964, was a keen gardener, and it shows. The garden at 7 Hammersmith Terrace is testimony to her golden horticultural touch, against the…