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Coming into the House

The Gallery:

The gallery introduces the visitor to the fact that it was at Red House that Morris became more serious and ambitious as a decorator and designer. 
On the wall are examples of the first wallpapers that Morris designed including Trellis.

Trellis Wallpaper

Ted Hollamby thought this to be the most beautiful part of the house representing the work of the ‘Trinity’: Webb, Morris and Burne-Jones. At the end of the gallery is a glazed screen leading through to the entrance hall. Careful observers will see, scratched into the glass, the signatures of visitors from the early 1890s. These include Arthur Lazenby Liberty, May Morris, Georgie Burne-Jones, Aymer Vallance, and a number of Japanese guests.

The Entrance Hall:

The entrance hall, for some people the most dramatic part of the house, is at the base of the tower and therefore the very centre of the house. It is dominated by the beautiful oak staircase with its elegant Newell posts. But the eye is quickly caught by the dramatic painted door. 

The Front Door Inset into this are four stained glass panels representing the seasons. They are clearly more modern but designed to keep within the spirit of the house as Morris and his friends had intended. They were done by Anthony Holloway and are typical of the way that Ted and Doris Hollamby made sure that the house kept the best of the past but was never preserved in aspic.

Equally striking is the large canopied cupboard, another original piece of furniture. 

Covered in brown paint by the National Assistance Board when they occupied the house during the Second World War, it has been partially restored to reveal an incomplete painting by Morris based on Malory’s tale ‘Joyous Gard’.

Joyous Gard

Not satisfied with this decorative feast, it was originally intended to have, sweeping up the stairs, a painting of the Siege of Troy, with a large picture of a warship in the hall. This, like a number of projects, never came to fruition. Pop out of the front door and overhead is a Latin inscription: ‘May God preserve your going out and your coming in’.

Staircase:

The now classic staircase is typical of the Arts and Crafts style in its ‘honesty’, with all of the construction displayed – the strings, the risers, the treads, even the glued blocks. 

 

The Toner Ceiling Walking up the stairs it is possible to get a dramatic view of the ceiling of the tower,  which is done in a design that many think must be art deco, but which Morris based on Byzantine motifs.
 

 

 

 

 

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