42 28 MARCH 2024 Weekending GRAND DESIGNS Three more places to visit The V&A Museum, London The impressive William Morris collection features many of his designs for wallpapers, textiles, tiles, stained glass and embroidery. Merton Abbey Mills, Merton His design and printing company, at this pretty site on the River Wandle (a Thames tributary), produced some of his most famous printed textiles. The William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow The Grade II*-listed building was William Morris’s family home in his teenage years, and now houses the world’s largest collection of his work. ‘’Bore susantur? Nus riasperenis non cum ipsunt, officit atquamus debitatio quuntur simperae doluptatis “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,” said William Morris in 1880. The designer and poet is widely regarded as the father of the Arts & Crafts movement, which aimed to restore craft and decorative arts in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. And his message still rings true, 190 years after he was born. There’s no better way to learn about the man than by visiting one of his many former homes. Kelmscott Manor, a glorious Elizabethan pile in West Oxfordshire, was described by William Morris himself as “heaven on Earth”. It was here, while watching thrushes steal strawberries from a bush, that he got the inspiration for his iconic Strawberry Thief pattern. The property underwent a lengthy renovation a couple of years ago, but from 4 April visitors can once again waltz TIMELESS GENIUS OF WILLIAM MORRIS It’s 190 years since the birth of the celebrated textile designer, craftsman and social activist – yet his work is more relevant today than ever, says Sarah Barratt through rooms redecorated in his celebrated fabric and wallpaper designs. “Rather than making Kelmscott feel like a museum, our goal was to make it seem like you’ve just stepped into Morris’s house,” says manager Gavin Williams. The great man adored this home so much that he named his London residence after it. Kelmscott House, on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, hosts The William Morris Society Museum (within the coach house and basement), where visitors can see his work at the Art of Wallpaper exhibition until 11 August, tracing the development of some of his most enduring patterns, such as Larkspur, Jasmine and Marigold. Today, his designs read like stories and remain popular on the pages of magazines around the world. John Lewis stocks a huge range of Morris & Co products, from crockery and stationery to bed linen and lampshades in elegant leaf prints and maximalist florals in bold colourways. “His designs are part of this country’s DNA,” says Rosalind Ormiston, coauthor of William Morris: Artist, Craftsman, Pioneer. “The patterns are timeless, based on tapestries created in the Middle Ages. Morris adored medieval history and aimed to revive craft-based techniques from this time.” Even so, Rosalind adds, his work remains highly relevant – he understood that proximity to nature and beauty enhanced mental and physical health. Art, he argued, wasn’t just something to see in a gallery – but was anything man-made, from buildings to furniture to fabric. DESIGNS ON SUCCESS Kelmscott Manor (left); a room showing the Strawberry Thief wallpaper design (below); a portrait of William Morris (bottom)
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