William Morris Gallery

On Sunday I visited the Willian Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. I didn't know that it existed unitl I moved to Walthamstow, it is in the house that he grew up in and owned. Its a beautiful old house, set with Lloyd Park surrounding it. It's not a very big gallery, only about half an hours worth, maybe longer if you read everything. But well worth a visit if you are in the area and are interested in his work.

"The 18th Century Water House, Morris’s family home from 1848 to 1856, is now the William Morris Gallery. A committed socialist and medievalist, William Morris (1834 - 1896) was horrified by increasing mass-production and mechanisation in the arts and wished to reinstate the values of traditional craftsmanship and simplicity of design. His slogan was that art should be ‘by the people, for the people’.
Following these principles, he decorated and furnished his new house (the Red House, built by Philip Webb) himself, helped by Burne-Jones and Rossetti, amongst others. This led to the setting up of the firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. The firm was a ‘company of Fine Art Workmen’, designing and producing furniture, wallpaper, murals, tapestries, stained glass windows, metalwork, tiles and embroidery, examples of which are on display at the William Morris Gallery."