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further grants from the council and the Heritage Lottery
fund in excess of £3 million. The money was spent on
a total refurbishment with the gallery closing for a year
while a new wing was added to house additional gallery
space and a café. The result is rather lovely and in its
very first year the new Gallery has scooped the prestigious
Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013. Stephen
Deuchar, Art Fund director and chair of the judges said
that the local authority had discovered that:
"what they might have thought was a sleepy old museum
that could be humanely put down, could in fact be
revitalised..”
Water House is a substantial Grade II* listed Georgian
mansion of about 1750 set in its own extensive grounds
which now forms Lloyd Park. Inside elegantly redecorated
rooms the gallery collections tell the story of a polymath.
There are printed, woven and embroidered fabrics, rugs,
carpets, wallpapers, furniture, stained glass and painted
tiles designed by Morris, Burne-Jones, Philip Webb,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown. Intimate
biographical exhibits include Morris’s old brown satchel
in which he lugged around socialist pamphlets. But this is
certainly not a fawning or sycophantic display and
alongside a great big cup and saucer that Edward and
Georgiana Burne-Jones kept for Morris when he visited
during a period that Burne Jones was working on
illustrations for Morris’s huge collection of poems
This
Earthly Paradise
there’s a quote from Georgiana recalling
how she’d bite her fingers or stab herself with pins to stay
awake when Morris read his poems aloud. William Morris
poetry is little read today but a great revival of interest in
the Arts & Crafts movement has made him a household
name.
The William Morris Gallery is composed of nine main
rooms that take
the visitor through the life, work and
influences of Morris and includes galleries inspired by the
Morris & Co workshops at Merton Abbey and the shop on
Oxford Street. It contains enough detail to satisfy the
Morris enthusiast and the beautiful wood-floored rooms
contain enough variety and exceptional items (the Utrecht
Velvet used on the Titanic springs to mind) to appeal to
the more casual visitor. Once rather faded and jaded the
Gallery is now jolly and bright and whereas it once seemed
somewhat out on a limb (begging the question of what to
combine with it to make a satisfying day out) it now, sits
happily just above the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Which brings me to my suggestion for an entertaining day
out with one of our top-notch Blue Badge Guides.
Please turn over...