The Morris & Co. Shop on Oxford Street

The firm's documented retail beginnings

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company was formed in April 1861 with premises in Red Lion Square. The idea for the company arose during the furnishing and decorating of Red House, the home Morris and his friends worked on together. That project is the documented starting point of the firm's commercial life.

Red House itself has a clear record. The National Trust states that Philip Webb designed Red House, which was completed in 1860. When Morris and his circle furnished and decorated it, the collaboration that became the firm took shape. Readers who want the full story of the building can read our guide to Red House.

The firm's early work reached a public audience quickly. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company exhibited stained glass at the International Exhibition of 1862 at South Kensington. That showing placed the young firm's work before an international audience within a year of its founding.

The Red House project left a recorded impression on those involved. The remark above captures the enthusiasm of the circle whose furnishing work led directly to the founding of the firm.

The gaps in the Oxford Street record

This article cannot verify several details that readers searching for the Oxford Street shop usually want. The sources consulted contain no information about a Morris & Co. shop on Oxford Street, including any address, dates of operation, or Morris's association with it.

The following points are not established by the evidence and are therefore not asserted here:

• No street address for an Oxford Street shop appears in the record, and no source confirms whether any such premises relate to the Red Lion Square premises named in the firm's founding.
• No evidence identifies a current owner or operator of an Oxford Street shop.
• No evidence lists Morris objects on display at an Oxford Street shop.
• No evidence provides current visitor details, such as opening hours or admission, for an Oxford Street shop.
• No evidence states when the firm became Morris & Company or when it moved premises.

If you are researching the firm's retail premises, treat any Oxford Street claim you find elsewhere as unconfirmed until it can be checked against a primary source. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the documented starting point remains Red Lion Square in 1861.

Places connected with the firm that are documented

While the Oxford Street record is silent, several Morris places are well documented, and each has its own guide on this journal. For Morris's life as a whole, the places connected with Morris's life are collected in our biography overview.

In London, the William Morris Society states that it is based in the Coach House and Lower Rooms of Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, Morris's London home for the last eighteen years of his life. Our guide to the story of Kelmscott House covers the house in detail.

For the firm's designs rather than its buildings, our William Morris original designs collection gathers documented design histories.