Red House
What Visitors Say
William Morris’s first ever house is a must visit for all architects ans design lovers. Part of English heritage, the house is exclusively visited as part of a guided visit- the volunteer guides are very well read and prepared to answer any design related question, and on the garden there’s also a second hand bookshop. No café tho for scones as advertised on the website. Very much worth a visit if you love visiting historical homes. It’s also the first ever Arts and Crafts house (and had electricity and indoors bathrooms from the beginning).
Amazing house to visit if you are a Morris fan or just like architecture. Not much left of the original furniture, but what is there is worth seeing. Guides do an amazing job at immersing you into the house and life there with anecdotes. You have to book in advance to go in, but the gardens are open to everyone.
Well the garden is lovely and the staff are friendly. A surviving house amid 1930s estates formerly orchards. Inside almost empty apart from structural cracks. Almost no furniture and no personal possessions, no books. Minimal pictures or tapestries. Does not feel lived in but he only lived there 5 years a long time ago. No personal connection felt with William Morris or his family despite a very spicy lifestyle. It needs the Creativity and Magic of Morris brought to the house. Tour very thorough but needs more humour and more of the sense of the man.
The former home of the artist WM Morris ( William ) and his wife. There is of course a great deal of art work,much better Morris and his wife but also by their friends. Subsequent owners covered much of the work up but it has been revealed one more for everyone to enjoy You need to book on their website as they offer a guided tour around the house. Red House belongs to the National Trust and entry is free for members. The tour is carried out by a National Trust expert tour guide. It's very informative and really gives an insight into the lives of the artistic couple and their artist friends. The house has a lovely garden with an artistic theme and flowers and plants complement the colour of the house. There is a tea room on site and public toilets. There is also a second hand bookshop that's very reasonable indeed. Please note that there is not really anywhere to park near the house. I used Just Park ( online or App ) and managed to park 0.4 miles away . Access to parts of the house and some of the garden would be difficult for wheelchair users. If you are I tested in WM Morris, his influence and work can be found at other National Trust Properties in the South East. National Trust membership is from £7.50 per month for individual membership but there are deals for couples,families and 17-25 year olds.
Very beautiful spot, very well introduced by the guide, amazing gardens to spend time in, super sweet second hand bookshop but come with change if you intend to buy. Also bring drinks and food as there is no coffee shop nearby.
Highlights
Webb’s ‘Honest’ Architecture
Birthplace of Arts & Crafts principlesAsymmetry, local brick, deep eaves—nothing is showy; everything serves life inside the house.
Exterior and ground floor circuit
Morris & Burne-Jones Wall Paintings
Early experiments by a future design firmSketchy, lyrical figures surfaced from beneath later paint layers—studio work done at home.
Stair hall / principal rooms (guided access)
Total Design, Room by Room
Architecture, furniture and ornament as one ideaEven with losses, you can read the ‘whole house’ concept: built-in settles, purposeful light, humane scale.
Parlour, dining room, bedrooms
Garden as an Extension of the House
Nature completes the interiorFruit trees, workaday borders and sightlines turn the garden into another ‘room’.
Rear lawns, orchard paths
Opening Hours
Fun Facts
Red House was designed in 1859 by Philip Webb for his friend William Morris and is widely cited as the first true Arts & Crafts house.
Conservation work revealed Morris and Edward Burne-Jones’s early wall paintings hidden under later paint—rare survival of their ‘at-home’ experiments.
Ideas forged at Red House fed directly into Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (founded 1861), the workshop that reshaped Victorian interiors.
