William Morris' Home on Upper Mall is Focus of Exhibition

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Visitors invited to 'The dear warp and weft of Hammersmith': A history of Kelmscott House

William Morris' home is the focus of the latest exhibition at the Coach House of Kelmscott House in Hammersmith's Upper Mall.

Kelmscott House was the beloved home of Victorian designer, poet, writer and socialist William Morris and his family for the last 18 years of his life.

William Morris

In the first exhibition of its kind about one of the most significant homes in the history of British interior design, The William Morris Society faithfully conveys the atmosphere of a house bursting with creative energy and artistic activity.

‘The dear warp and weft at Hammersmith’: A History of Kelmscott House features original Morris & Co. designs, textiles and wallpapers, complemented by beautiful photographic prints.

Hammersmith residents who inhabited the house before and after Morris are featured including poet and novelist George MacDonald, Sir Francis Ronalds, who invented the electric telegraph and actress Athene Seyler.

William Morris reported to his wife Jane that he had found a house in London that 'might be made very beautiful with a touch of my art' when he leased Kelmscott House in 1878. It was here that he began carpet weaving, wove his first tapestry and continued his innovating approach to design.

When away from the house, Morris longed to return to these practical crafts, writing: "Lord bless us how nice it will be when I can get back to my little patterns and dyeing and the dear warp and weft at Hammersmith" – warp and weft being weaving terms.

Many well-known Morris & Co. designs are associated with the house. In 1878 Morris designed the Bird woven wool textile to hang in the drawing room of the property and Peacock and Dragon curtains adorned the room. Pimpernel wallpaper hung in the dining room and Trellis in Morris’s ground floor bedroom.

Morris established the Hammersmith branch of the Socialist League in the Coach House of the property and in 1891 he set up the Kelmscott Press, his private printing press, a few doors away.

'The dear warp and weft at Hammersmith' is open Thursday and Saturdays, from 2pm till 5pm until Saturday 26 October at the Coach House, Kelmscott House, 26 Upper Mall, Hammersmith. Admission to the exhibition is free.

 

August 1, 2018