Red House

Red House, the remarkable red-brick house built for William Morris in Bexleyheath, southeast London, was finally acquired by the National Trust in January. I say ‘finally’ as it was not the first time the Trust had tried to secure the house in which the Pre-Raphaelites experimented with paint and glass and where plans were formulated for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., the manufacturing and decorating firm at the centre of the Arts and Crafts movement. It is a house where the garden is equally significant and its plants were to inspire many of Morris’s fabrics and wallpapers.