Emery Walker And the Arts And Crafts Movement

Forthcoming lecture in the Chiswick Pier Trust series Talks by the Thames

Next Tuesday (24 April), Julie Ashdown OBE will be speaking at Chiswick Pier about the restoration of Emery Walker’s house, 7 Hammersmith Grove, which opened last year to enormous acclaim.

The lecture entitled Emery Walker and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Hammersmith
is part of Chiswick Pier Trust’s Talks by the Thames and will take place at 7.30 pm at Chiswick Pier House, Corney Reach Way, W4 2UG. Doors open at 7pm.

The story behind Emery Walker’s contribution to print and photogravure is fascinating, and Julie Ashdown will also be looking at how his beautiful house by the river evolved. It is a museum that feels like a home, a microcosm of how Emery Walker and his family and friends lived in Victorian times. The house is one of the few remaining to have original, hand-blocked Morris & Co wallpaper in nearly every room, and there is an extensive collection of textiles, wallpaper and furniture designed by Philip Webb.

Emery Walker was a printer and typographer, a committed socialist and a friend of Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, Philip Webb and William Morris. He was a key adviser in William Morris’s Kelmscott Press and later set up the Doves Press with his partner Thomas Cobden Sanderson (who was a previous occupant of 7 Hammersmith Terrace).

The latter relationship deteriorated to such an extent that, when they dissolved the partnership, they made a gentleman’s agreement to leave the type to each other in the event of each other’s death. Cobden Sanderson resolved not to let this happen, and famously made 170 separate trips to Hammersmith Bridge under cover of darkness to throw the typeface into the Thames rather than let Walker have access to them after his death.

Julie Ashdown OBE is a retired diplomat and diversity adviser who is a volunteer at Emery Walker’s House.

The talk is free for members of Chiswick Pier Trust and £3 for guests. For further information on the Pier and how to get there, contact the Chiswick Pier Trust 020 8742 2713, or check their web site.

April 18, 2018