William Morris Gallery
- Art lovers
- Architecture and design enthusiasts
- Families with children
What Visitors Say
Wonderful exhibits, in a beautiful house, set in a lovely park. The Women in Print exhibition has many amazing designs and showcases the rich history of Liberty.
Lovely gallery that you can visit for free about the life and work of William Morris. I visited their temporary exhibition about women designers at Liberty fabrics which was very nicely done. Enjoyed the shop and garden as well.
Really enjoyed the Women in Print exhibition! The building is lovely, and surrounded by a gorgeous park (looking forward to visiting at a warmer time of year to make the most of the outdoor space). I had a mocha and cinnamon bun from the coffee shop which were both super delicious 🤤
Such a beautiful gallery to explore inside and out! There was a wonderful exhibition on Women in Print (on till June 2026) and it was a great hisorical overview as well as just seeing some beautiful prints! I had to massively hold back in the gift shop :D There was also a food market right outside on the Saturday we went which was a delicious treat afterwards.
We visited yesterday. Parking nearby, reasonable price. Free entry to the museum. Really lovely and informative. Also were lucky enough to see the Liberty exhibition. The cafe serves great food l, the staff were friendly and you can sit outside and enjoy the grounds. Definitely recommended.
Highlights
Pattern Lab
How repeats become wallpapers and textilesYou see the jump from hand-sketched motifs to carved blocks and finished repeats—Morris’s craft stripped to its moving parts.
Ground floor, early galleries
Dye & Print
Natural colour, revivedMorris rejected chemical shortcuts; indigo vats and madder reds brought back the slow, luminous colour of vegetable dyes.
Ground floor, materials section
Kelmscott Press Room
The ‘book beautiful’Black ink, dense borders, and Burne-Jones wood-engravings show how Morris re-imagined the book as a total artwork.
First floor
Wallpaper Icons
Patterns that shaped British taste‘Strawberry Thief’, ‘Willow’, ‘Seaweed’—nature stylised into endlessly livable rooms.
First floor, design gallery
Lloyd Park & Garden Views
Context for a nature-first designerFrom the café windows to the herbaceous borders, the park frames Morris’s belief that beauty belongs in everyday life.
Rear of the house
Fun Facts
The gallery won Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2013—remarkable for a free, local authority museum.
Morris lived here as a teenager (1848–56) in the Georgian ‘Water House’; his walks in the Lea Valley fed the plant forms that later recur in his patterns.
‘Strawberry Thief’ was inspired by thrushes stealing fruit at Kelmscott Manor—proof that irritation can birth an icon.
Morris co-founded a firm with six friends in 1861 (Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.), effectively inventing a modern design studio that handled everything from stained glass to furniture.
