Visiting my hero's childhood home - William Morris Gallery

William Morris Gallery (front)

Today I visited the childhood home of William Morris, now the William Morris Gallery, in Walthamstow. This visit has been on my list for several years and I was pleased to finally get there. Set over two floors the exhibition takes you on a journey through the the life of William Morris with Meet the Man and a timeline to start with. In the next rooms you follow his progress - meeting Edward Burne Jones and forming the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the setting up of the first company and his marriage to Jane Burden.

The galleries contain pieces of furniture, ceramics, a piano, tiles and fabrics. It mentions some of the houses he did the interior design for and there is a workshop room with videos about weaving and dyes. Morris was a good employer and he weaved himself. Although I know a fair bit about William Morris (he's a bit of a hero of mine) there is always something new to learn. It was great to get up close to swatches of his designs and see original documents, including a few of Burne Jones cartoons of William (I have one one on a fridge magnet!).

Upstairs there is a room with photos, documents and a video about William's socialist views and how he gave lectures and wanted so much to try and change the world. Another room is given over to the Kemscott Press with books they printed including the Works of Chaucer with Burne Jones drawings.

William Morris had his finger in many artistic pies - he wrote poetry, designed fabrics, furniture and wallpapers, wrote an Icelandic saga and other books. However he never really painted. There is one self portrait he drew when he was a young man and as far as I know he only painted one picture but was never satisfied with the result. He left that up to his friends in the Brotherhood. Although I like Rossetti's painting I have to say that Burne Jones stuff is pretty stunning. I didn't see anything about Holman Hunt here. I like his paintings too but though they were friends they did not work together in the same way Rossetti and Burne Jones did.

Outside is a lovely garden with what was called the moat where Morris fished! Behind that is Lloyd Park which has a superb children's' play area, cafe and skate park. The gallery has an excellent cafe of its own as well as a small shop.

If I could meet anyone from the past I think it would have to be William Morris. I'd like to think we would have got on well.

From the back (cafe on the left)