Red House: The Home Philip Webb Built for William Morris

A Red Brick House in Bexleyheath

Red House stands on Red House Lane in Bexleyheath, with the postcode DA6 8JF. The National Trust gives the address and, on its record for the property, states that the house was designed by Philip Webb and completed in 1860.

The name describes the material. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the house was so called because it was built of red brick when the fashion was for stucco villas. That choice of plain, honest brick was one of the things that made the building stand out, and it is part of why the house is treated as an early landmark of the Arts and Crafts approach to building.

Encyclopaedia Britannica records that Red House was a family home for William Morris, described by the same source as a founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, and his wife Jane, and that it also served as the hub of an artistic community. The house was more than a private retreat. It was built and lived in as a place where work, friendship and domestic life overlapped.

Morris at Red House: The Documented Story

The commission followed Morris's marriage. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Morris commissioned his friend the architect Philip Webb, whom he had originally met in Street's office, to build the Red House at Bexleyheath. The friendship between the two men, formed in the office of the architect George Edmund Street's practice, produced one of the most discussed houses of the Victorian period.

The documentary record has a gap at the centre of the story. The sources used for this page give the completion of the house in 1860 and Morris's move away in 1865, but they do not state the exact date Morris moved in. Readers looking for a precise occupancy start date will not find one in the National Trust or Britannica records consulted here.

What the record does show is a family growing up in the house. Encyclopaedia Britannica gives the births of Morris's daughters Jenny and May in 1861 and 1862, both within the Red House years. The house was thus the setting for the early childhood of both of Morris's children.

Encyclopaedia Britannica also offers a judgement on the period, recording that the five years spent at Red House were the happiest of Morris's life. The judgment is the encyclopedia's rather than a documented statement by Morris himself, but it reflects how the episode is usually weighed in accounts of his career.

The Red House period ended for a medical reason. According to Britannica, after a serious attack of rheumatic fever, brought on by overwork, Morris moved in 1865 to Bloomsbury in London. The move took him closer to the firm's working premises and opened the next phase of his life, which included the later homes and workshops covered in our biography of William Morris and his places.

From Furnishing a House to Founding a Firm

Red House matters to Morris's career because of what happened while it was being furnished. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that during the furnishing and decorating of Red House by Morris and his friends, the idea came to them of founding an association of fine art workmen. Decorating a new house turned into a business plan.

The firm followed quickly. According to Britannica, in April 1861 the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company was founded, with premises in Red Lion Square. The same source lists the other members of the firm as Ford Madox Brown, Rossetti, Webb, and Burne-Jones, a group drawn from the same circle that had decorated the house.

The new firm showed its work in public early. Britannica records that at the International Exhibition of 1862 at South Kensington the firm exhibited stained glass. Within roughly a year of leaving the Red House furnishing project, the association of fine art workmen had premises, a name and a public showing.

The National Trust's own reading of the house carries the same point forward, describing it as the establishment of what later became Morris & Co., and attributing the origin of the Arts and Crafts movement to Red House. Both statements are the Trust's interpretations of the site's significance rather than neutral dates, and they are held by the organisation that cares for the property's story.

Burne-Jones's Verdict and What the Rooms Offer

The most quoted description of Red House comes from one of the friends who helped furnish it. According to the National Trust, Edward Burne-Jones described Red House as the beautifullest place on earth. Coming from a painter who knew the house from its first years, the phrase has stayed attached to the property ever since.

The National Trust describes the rooms at Red House as giving a unique view of William and Janey's life and the establishment of what later became Morris & Co. That reading places the interiors at the centre of the visit: the house is presented not only as architecture but as a record of how the Morrises and their circle lived and worked.

A caution for planners. The evidence used for this page does not list which specific Morris objects, furnishings or decorations are on display at Red House today. Visitors who want to check for a particular wallpaper, textile or piece of furniture should consult the property's own current information rather than assume anything in particular survives on display.

Readers interested in the garden side of the story, and its relationship to Morris's later pattern design, can find a separate treatment in our article on William Morris original designs and their sources, which sits alongside the place guides in this journal.

Visiting Red House: What Is and Is Not Confirmed

The confirmed basics are simple. The address is Red House Lane, Bexleyheath, London, DA6 8JF. The nearest train station is Bexleyheath, which the National Trust notes has direct trains from London Victoria, London Charing Cross and London Cannon Street, making the house an easy rail trip from central London.

One extra stop on site is documented. There is a secondhand bookshop run by the Friends of Red House in the Stables at Red House, according to the National Trust. It is a small addition to a visit and one that connects directly with Morris's life in books and printing.

Before you go, verify the following on the official National Trust page for Red House, since the records consulted for this article do not settle them:

• Opening hours and days on which the house is open
• Admission prices and whether booking is required
• Accessibility information and parking arrangements
• Which rooms, objects and decorations can currently be seen

A note on ownership. The property page for Red House sits on the National Trust website, but the excerpts used here do not explicitly state that the National Trust owns or operates the house. Treat the Trust as the source for current visiting information and confirm arrangements with it directly on the date you plan to travel.

Morris Places to Continue the Journey

Several other documented Morris places can be reached in and around London. Encyclopaedia Britannica places Morris's birth on March 24, 1834, in Walthamstow, near London, which makes the district a natural stop for anyone tracing his life.

For the London working years, the documented site is Kelmscott House in Hammersmith. The William Morris Society records that Morris lived there for the last eighteen years of his life, that the Society is based in the Coach House and Lower Rooms of the house, and that it sits at 26 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, W6 9TA. At Kelmscott House Morris pursued new creative directions for Morris & Co., experimented with book design and private printing, and became a leading voice in the Socialist League.

The Society remains an active organisation, running talks, workshops and events, both online and at Kelmscott House throughout the year, so the house is a working centre for Morris studies as well as a historic address.

Two further destinations round out the trail. Our guide to Merton Abbey Works looks at where Morris printed and wove in the firm's later decades, and the article on the Kelmscott Manor follows Morris to the Oxfordshire house on the Thames that he loved for the rest of his life. Together with Red House and Kelmscott House, they give a route through Morris's life in buildings he actually used.