Nestled on a terrace on the River Thames in Hammersmith, West London, Emery Walker’s House has some of the most authentic Arts and Crafts interiors in Britain.
Once the home of a celebrated typographer and printer, its four storeys are filled with significant ceramics, textiles and hand-carved furniture, along with one of the largest in situ collections of original William Morris hand-blocked wallpapers in the world.
But what makes this interior so unique and why is it consistently voted one of the best historic house museums in London? Click or scroll on to find out...
The Arts and Crafts movement emerged in the late Victorian era as a reaction to industrialisation and mass production. Led by designer, writer and social activist William Morris, it emphasised the value of traditional handcrafted objects and offered an alternative to the dehumanising effects of industrial labour.
This cartoon from Punch in 1864, a British satirical weekly pamphlet, depicts the movement's rise through classes and cultures.
Morris and his followers believed that good design should be present in all aspects of everyday life, from architecture to textiles, and that everyone should have access to beautiful things, regardless of wealth.
Emery Walker was a printer, engraver and photographer, as well as a key member of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The son of a coachbuilder, he was born in Paddington, London, in 1851. Unlike his close friend William Morris, he came from a working-class background and was forced to leave school and start earning aged just 13 as his father started to lose his sight.
After several miserable years as an apprentice draper, Walker joined the Chiswick-based Typographic Etching Company in 1873.
Founding his own company in 1886 in his mid-30s, he gained a reputation for his cutting-edge techniques for reproducing works of art and photographs as book illustrations and helped to revolutionise the book-making industry.
Walker was so influential that William Morris was inspired to create his own printing press after hearing his lecture on ‘Letterpress Printing and Illustration’ in 1888.
Pictured is Walker's copy of Morris' News from Nowhere, published by the Kelmscott Press in 1893 of which Walker was a key collaborator.
Emery Walker’s House is one of 17 Georgian houses built on the north bank of the River Thames between Chiswick Mall and Lower Mall in the 1750s. The area soon became a hot spot for members of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Creatives such as embroiderer May Morris, the daughter of Jane and William Morris, lived next door to Emery at number 8. May lived with close friend and lodger George Bernard Shaw, a famous playwright.
Other prominent figures included bookbinder Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, Edward Johnston, who designed the typeface used throughout the London Underground, and leading wood engraver W.H. Hooper.
They were said to visit each other's homes regularly and congregate for a late-night chat around the post box at the end of the terrace.
Emery and his wife Mary Grace originally lived at 3 Hammersmith Terrace. They moved to number seven in 1903 with their only child Dorothy. She would go on to inherit the house in 1933, remaining there until she died in 1963.
Dorothy had grown up with the influence of William Morris and architect and designer Philip Webb, surrounded by the beautiful objects they had designed.
After her father's death, she vowed to preserve the house, almost like a time capsule, as it had been during his lifetime.
When you step inside 7 Hammersmith Terrace it feels as if the Walker family has just stepped away and will be back any minute.
While most museums appear carefully curated, this home is how it would have looked at the time: an eclectic mix of ceramics from North Africa and Europe (where the Walker family travelled often) and Arts and Crafts pieces created by notable designers associated with the movement.
Friends such as Philip Webb, a British architect who co-founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, left Walker most of his belongings on his death in 1915.
A perfect example of an Arts and Crafts interior, the dining room features Morris & Co. hand-blocked wallpaper and furniture upholstered with Morris textiles. You will also see photographs of leading cultural figures of the day, taken by Walker, and a letter from George Bernard Shaw.
The house on Hammersmith Terrace is one of the only houses that has original hand-blocked printed William Morris wallpaper in every room, and there are some rare and unusual colourways, including Willow in the dining room.
It has a lovely bubble effect in the background, which is unusual and adds to the beauty of the design.
Emery's close friendship with William Morris (pictured right), rooted in a shared passion for books, design and social reform, had a profound impact on the Arts and Crafts movement and the revival of fine printing in the late 19th century.
Morris lived a five-minute walk from Hammersmith Terrace at Kelmscott House. Walker was instrumental in shaping his interest in fine printing and setting up the Kelmscott Press in 1890, which was one of the most influential private presses of the 19th century.
It produced limited-edition illustrated books, such as the Kelmscott Chaucer. Morris is often quoted as saying he "did not think the day complete without a sight of Walker".
One of the most striking elements of the dining room is a hanging of William Morris' Bird pattern, which spans the entire length of the wall on the right of this image.
This once hung in the Morris’s drawing room at nearby Kelmscott House, while a 17th-century chair, not visible in this image, once stood in the library.
On the table is a copy of The Doves Bible to demonstrate Walker’s influence on the Private Press Movement, of which he was often called 'the father'.
Possibly one of the most poignant items in the dining room is a small shrine to William Morris in a drawer containing his glasses, a woodcut from the Kelmscott Press, work utensils and a lock of his hair, which was snipped off on his deathbed by Emery Walker’s request.
Walker saw his best friend every day during the last six years of his life and it is a testament to their friendship that there are so many items connected with Morris throughout the house.
Much lighter than the dining room, the drawing room is located on the first floor and has views of the river.
Much of the furniture in this room was designed by Philip Webb, including the two glazed cabinets on either side of the fireplace, which were made by Morris & Co.
The William Morris wallpaper in this room is called Wallflower and the salt cellars and Wedgewood black basalt teapot on the table once belonged to poet and illustrator Dante Gabriel Rossetti, founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Jane Morris was his muse and the pair had an affair in the 1870s.
In this image of the drawing room, several significant items can be seen on the table, including a set of three bellied cream jugs and a charger plate, which were decorated by celebrated Wedgewood pottery designers, Alfred and Louise Powell.
The Wedgewood Cotswold charger features the Walkers’ second home Daneway in Sapperton in the Cotswolds, where Walker developed a creative circle of visitors including author Rudyard Kipling, the Sitwells (an eccentric couple who made their money from landowning and ironmaking) and Colonel T E Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia.
Before we proceed upstairs at Emery Walker's House, we must meet his daughter Dorothy. This archive photograph of her was taken by the playwright George Bernard Shaw, a close friend who lived next door.
An accomplished needlewoman who studied at the Slade School of Art, she travelled extensively for a woman born in 1878. She lived for a year in France and went to the United States, Russia, and Morocco.
Due to the lengthy absences of her mother, Dorothy was the main female presence at 7 Hammersmith Terrace. Her rooms are almost just as she left them...
This is the second-floor bedroom of Dorothy Walker. Emery slept in the room above on the top floor, which was originally servants' quarters and now serves as an office for the Emery Walker Trust.
Dorothy's bedroom features Daisy wallpaper, the first design created by William Morris in 1864, which was a popular choice for bedrooms, and a hanging bookcase thought to have been designed by Philip Webb.
Dorothy slept in this lovely Cotswold bed made by Sidney Barnsley which has now returned to the house on loan from the Victoria & Albert Museum, who eventually acquired it after she gave it away in the 1950s instead of architect's fees.
Another significant item is a Morris & Co. carpet bought by Dorothy from the country auction that cleared Kelmscott Manor, the Cotswolds home of William and Jane Morris.
Dorothy was an accomplished needlewoman and close friend of May Morris, the daughter of William Morris, who ran the embroidery department of her father's company. May designed this crewel-worked bedcover for Mary Grace Walker when she was bedridden at the end of her life.
It is a similar design to the one May and her mother Jane made for William Morris’s bed at Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswolds years earlier.
The bedcover was used as the pall on Mary Grace’s coffin in 1920, on Emery’s coffin in 1933 and on Dorothy’s in 1963.
Coming back downstairs, you can see the narrow hallway is still furnished with Morris wallpaper and hangings, although the wallpaper on the stairs is a Morris reproduction.
Just visible beneath the rugs is what is believed to be the only example of Morris Lino surviving in its original domestic setting.
Today, it is still possible to buy heritage Morris & Co. wallpaper and textiles, which have been drawn from the original 19th-century designs.
The Walkers' original telephone room, then the kitchen, is now a small reception area and shop for visitors, although there are still a few hints as to its former use evident in the dresser, piled with random pieces of crockery.
Otherwise, the house is as it would have looked when Emery was living here with his family.
An eclectic mix of items and furnishings gathered over a lifetime littered with friends, the collection doesn't stop inside the home...
At the back of the house overlooking the garden and the river is the light-filled conservatory with its joyful display of ceramics.
Although not significant individually, they represent the collection of a person closely linked to the leaders of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Emery bought many of these items on holidays in Europe with the Art Workers’ Guild, trips that were documented by his daughter Dorothy on her trusty Kodak Brownie camera and can be seen in the Emery Walker archive.
The vine you see here, which found its way into the conservatory, has its own artistic pedigree. Planted in the garden in 1900, it was taken from a cutting in the painter William Hogarth’s garden nearby.
It has been pruned right back, but still produces grapes which are, allegedly, very sweet but full of pips!
The home's pretty, walled garden runs down to the riverbank with a terrace at the end which provides the best place to view the constant activity on the river, including the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in the Spring.
This popular sporting fixture became part of the local Arts and Crafts social calendar, with parties held first by Morris and then by the Walkers. The garden is laid out roughly as it was in Emery Walker’s time, as per an 1890s plan and Dorothy’s meticulous notes.
Nature and the environment were major reference points for Arts and Crafts designers. William Morris took a lot of his inspiration from the outdoors and what was growing in his garden, which can be seen in the exquisite wallpapers and textiles that adorn Emery Walker’s house.
Dorothy was a keen and respected gardener with a plant named after her. She maintained the aesthetic her father created during his lifetime.
Many artists, including the great British painter William Turner, were lured to this stretch of the river with its large, beautiful gardens and sweeping views up and downstream.
The local area is steeped in Arts and Crafts history, too. With reminders of Emery's work around every corner.
The Dove pub just along the river (pictured), gave name to the printing press Walker co-founded with Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, often credited with coining the term arts and crafts. Doves Press was established in 1900 at Sanderson's home at no.1 Hammersmith Terrace.
The pair created a new typeface, also called Doves, which was used in their crowning glory: the five-volume Doves bible which became a collector’s item.
However, despite the success of the Doves Press, Cobden-Sanderson and Walker had fallen out by 1908 over what the former perceived as the latter’s lack of dedication.
Refusing to part ways civilly and leave the press to Walker after his death as had been agreed, Cobden-Sanderson decided on another course of action.
Under the cover of darkness, the old man made an estimated 170 trips all the way to Hammersmith Bridge, dumping over a ton of type into the river to make sure his partner never got it.
Some of the lost type has since been rediscovered thanks to mud larkers and returned to Emery Walker's House.
If it feels that Walker’s wife Mary Grace is somewhat absent from the house and this narrative, it’s because she spent very little time here due to ill health.
Preferring to reside in the British countryside, she is seen here with her husband Emery in this turn-of-the-century photograph.
Born in Sligo, Ireland, Mary Grace married Emery Walker in 1877 and their only child Dorothy was born in 1878. A keen poet, there are many examples of her work held in the Sir Emery Walker Trust Archive. She died in 1920.
After putting an advertisement in the British magazine The Lady for a companion to help her look after the house, the 70-year-old Dorothy employed Dutch-born Elizabeth de Haas in 1948.
Despite having no previous link with the family, Elizabeth became a devoted support to Dorothy and caretaker of the house and its legacy.
She formed friendships with surviving members of the Arts and Crafts fraternity and helped set up The Emery Walker Trust to care for the house beyond her lifetime.
A blue plaque commemorating Sir Emery Walker was erected in 1959 by the London County Council at 7 Hammersmith Terrace. Dorothy can be seen here during the ceremony.
The plaque serves to honour his significant contributions as a typographer and antiquary and his influence within the Arts and Crafts movement.
It also highlights the historical importance of his residence, which remains one of the best-preserved examples of an Arts and Crafts interior in Britain.
This is due in no small part to the efforts of Elizabeth de Haas, who inherited the house following the death of Dorothy Walker in 1963.
She approached several institutions including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Victorian Society and the Art Workers’ Guild, to form a Trust to take over the running of the house into the future.
The Emery Walker Trust was founded in 1999, just four months before Elizabeth's death.
The Trust began running guided tours in 2005. In 2017, it reopened after an 18-month closure for renovations.
Around 6,000 items were removed for cataloguing and conservation during the renovation and vital repair work was carried out on the roof.
As a result, the house continues to thrive and remains a treasure trove of Arts and Crafts artistry, with a unique insight into the lives of its inhabitants.
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