Kelmscott House Museum
- Art lovers
- Architecture and design enthusiasts
What Visitors Say
Small but a very informative & engaging insight into William Morris’ life and works. Sadly, his garden isn’t always open to visit. It was a small haven and a space to develop ideas.
Very intimate Museum, where you can learn so much about the artist's life and work. So exciting to see the drawing, the bits of textiles the small jars with pigments, it really feels like travelling in time ❤️
A very small but lovely museum if you’re interested in the Arts and Crafts movement. You would struggle to spend an hour here, but that’s fine as it’s only £5.00 admission, £3.50 concessions. A great location, on the north bank of the Thames, a few minutes walk from Hammersmith Bridge. Unless you’re a massive fan of William Morris, I wouldn’t travel a long way to visit. But this is a great part of London, particularly in the sunshine, so definitely worth incorporating into a river/pub walk.
Wonderful little museum in the former home of William Morris in the bank of the Thames. Well worth the entrance fee. Just the right amount of interpretation to go with the lovely objects and designs! 😁
Super museum run by the William Morris Society. Tremendous place to visit for anyone even vaguely interested in the Arts and Crafts movement. It’s by no means large, but it’s charming and well worth a visit. Limited opening hours so it’s worth checking carefully if the place is open before visiting. A very small shop by the entrance with a handful of items; this seems a good sign - much more money could be made by expanding the shop.
Highlights
Kelmscott Press & the Albion
Connects Morris’s late-life private press to the Arts & Crafts ideal of ‘the book beautiful’.Original printing equipment and specimen pages illuminate how hand-set type, handmade paper and wood-engraved illustration met in works like the 1896 ‘Kelmscott Chaucer’.
Coach House workspace
Pattern & Process
Shows wallpapers and textiles alongside design drawings, revealing how repeat units grow into immersive surfaces.The famous foliage patterns were technical feats—block registration, dye chemistry and scale all had to align.
Basement displays
Morris the Socialist
Documents talks and pamphlets produced when Kelmscott House doubled as a hub for the Socialist League in the 1880s.Lecture notices and correspondence show a designer-poet turning organiser, using the house as a platform for public debate.
Coach House meeting material
Opening Hours
Fun Facts
Morris moved into the Hammersmith house in 1878 and lived here until his death in 1896; during that period he founded the Kelmscott Press (1891), whose masterpiece, the ‘Works of Geoffrey Chaucer’, appeared in 1896.
Kelmscott House was both domestic base and political platform—Morris hosted Socialist League meetings here, linking Arts & Crafts ideals with social reform.
The press’s books combined hand-cut types (notably Golden, Troy and Chaucer types) with wood-engraved illustrations after Edward Burne-Jones—an all-arts collaboration orchestrated by Morris.
