‘Red House’ was built by the designer William Morris together with the architect Philip Webb. It was intended as a family home for Morris and his new wife Jane and for five years from 1860-1865 it was.
William Morris, the great pioneer of the Arts and Craft Movement is now perhaps chiefly remembered for his beautiful wallpaper designs. And if the walls of ‘Red House’ could talk they would tell of a remarkable circle of friendship. It was here that Morris and his wife played host to the greatest names of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (a group of English painters) such as his great friend (and later love rival for his wife’s affections) the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
‘Red House’ is a house of secrets. The child-like smiley face found painted on the ceiling. The series of wall paintings discovered behind a wardrobe and only now brought to light. Are they Elizabeth Siddal’s? Tragic muse and painter in her own right.
Imagine them, playing hide and seek here! Surrounded at that time by an ancient orchard, imagine the apples falling through the open windows!
It was a fruitful place artistically too: Morris founded his design company Morris, Faulker and Co. here, replacing the Victorian obsession with the industrial with Red House’s aesthetic of handcrafted beauty.
For Morris, the author of a poem entitled ‘the earthly paradise’ ‘Red House’ was perhaps the closest he ever came.
