Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WILLIAM MORRIS
Poet, artist, designer and socialist,
William Morris
(1834-96) was one of the most fascinating
characters of Victorian London. Closely associated with both the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and
Crafts movements, he set up Morris & Co, whose work covered all areas of applied art: glasswork,
tiles, metalwork, furniture, calligraphy, carpets, book illumination and (perhaps most famously)
wallpaper. As well as being a successful capitalist - the company's flagship store was on Mayfair's
Hanover Square - Morris also became one of the leading political figures of his day, active in the
Socialist League with Eleanor Marx, and publishing several utopian tracts, most famously
News
from Nowhere
, in which he suggested that the Houses of Parliament be used as “a storage place for
manure” (you can buy a copy in the William Morris Gallery bookshop). If you like your WM, you can
see more of his work elsewhere in London: at the V&A, Holy Trinity Church and the Red House.
William Morris Gallery
Forest Rd • Wed-Sun 10am-5pm • Free •
T
020 8496 4390,
W
wmgallery.org.uk•
!
Walthamstow Central
he
William Morris Gallery
is housed in a lovely Georgian mansion with two big bay
windows
.
This was the Morris family home from 1848, following the death of Morris's
father, a wealthy businessman in the City, the previous year. The gallery has benefitted
from a total refurb, and is now a very attractive museum (and café) to visit.
Ground floor displays tell the story of Morris's early life and business projects,
accompanied by examples of his first wallpaper design (a rose trellis), a lovely oak settle and
some glorious De Morgan animal tiles for a nursery. Upstairs, there are “Brownies” (fairies)
in stained glass, and beautiful first editions from the Kelmscott Press, souvenirs from
Iceland and the modest leather satchel he took everywhere with him. he contradiction
between his rich clients and his socialist ideals is touched upon, and there's a copy of the
anti-war song he wrote in 1878. There's also a whole room devoted to Frank Brangwyn,
who trained at Morris & Co and was something of a jack-of-all-trades like Morris.
20
Hampstead
Perched on a hill to the west of Hampstead Heath,
Hampstead
village developed into a
fashionable spa in the eighteenth century, and was not much altered thereafter. Its sloping
site, which deterred Victorian property speculators and put off the railway companies,
saved much of the Georgian village from destruction. Later, it became one of the city's
most celebrated literary
quartiers
and even now it retains its reputation as a bolt hole of
the high-profile intelligentsia and discerning pop stars. You can get some idea of its tone
from the fact that the local Labour MP for many years was the actress Glenda Jackson.
The steeply inclined
High Street
, lined with trendy shops and arty cafés, flaunts the
area's ever-increasing wealth without completely losing its charm, though the most
appealing area is the extensive, picturesque and precipitous network of alleyways, steps
and streets east and west of Heath Street. Proximity to
Hampstead Heath
is, of course,
the real joy of the area, for this mixture of woodland, smooth pasture and landscaped
garden is quite simply the most exhilarating patch of greenery in London.
Holly Bush Hill
If you wander into the backstreets north of Hampstead tube, you will probably end up
at the small triangular green on
Holly Bush Hill
, where the white weatherboarded
Romney House
stands (closed to the public). In 1797, painter George Romney
converted the house and stables into London's first purpose-built artist's studio house,
though he spent only two years here before returning to the Lake District and the wife
he had abandoned thirty years earlier. Later, it served as Hampstead's Assembly Rooms,
where Constable used to lecture on landscape painting. Several houses are set grandly
behind wrought-iron gates, on the north side of the green, including the late
seventeenth-century
Fenton House
.
