Beautifully preserved Arts & Crafts home opens to the public following its restoration

The Arts & Crafts Team with Helen Elletson, curator, declaring the House open.

The best preserved Arts & Crafts home in Britain has reopened in West London (20 April), attracting visitors from near and as far afield as Australia after an 18 month closure for vital repair work .

First through the door at 7 Hammersmith Terrace was Michael Grant from Hanwell who is a big fan of Arts & Crafts and William Morris. “It was really interesting; so many people from the Arts & Crafts Movement lived here and knew each other. I particularly loved the bedcover – it was amazing! And the house is in such a lovely situation near the river”.

Jill Rathbone from Fulham, who was also on the first tour at 11 am, enthused “I really enjoyed the fact that it was a home and that someone lived in it – it looks like time has stood still, and I’m glad that it has not undergone a makeover. I loved the old photographs, the fabrics, the wallpapers – the creakiness of it!”

Benita McLennan from Australia, said she hadn't heard of Emery Walker before this but “I'm a William Morris fan and am doing a bit of a tour; I was at Red House yesterday. I found the tour really good and informative".

Rowan Ferguson, also an Arts & Crafts enthusiast, has just moved to London, "Just before I moved I watched something about Emery Walker, and then I moved to Hammersmith and walked past the house, but it was closed then. Now it is open I finally get to see inside! I like the Daisy wallpaper and the ceramics particularly - I want more time to see everything!"

Pauline and Richard Bateman had come all the way from Sheffield and attended the one hour guided tour after a trip to The William Morris Society Museum, a ten minute walk away in Upper Mall. Closer to home, Anna Kolliowska, from Chiswick, said she really appreciated the wealth of detail in the interiors and the beautiful peonies in the riverside garden. Another local resident, Margaret McCullagh summed up her experience of the tour “For me it’s the fabrics, furniture and Morris wallpapers – it was just amazing to see the square panel showing a before and after section of the paper demonstrating just how much has been cleaned and restored”.

Emery Walker's House has been repaired and catalogued as part of a project called Arts & Crafts Hammersmith, restoring both this and The William Morris Society Museum, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and match funding. Tours and donations are now needed to keep the House going for the future. Visitors can see Emery Walker’s House on Thursdays and Saturdays when three tours a day are led by an expert guide and steward, making it a unique and intimate experience with a new exhibition space offering the chance for visitors to get close to and even handle some of the objects in the collection. Prebooking essential on their new website

April 21, 2017