About
Red House in Bexleyheath, south-east London, is one of the most important buildings in the history of art and design — the house that William Morris built for himself and his new wife Jane in 1859–60, designed by his close friend Philip Webb, and the physical embodiment of the principles that would become the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was the first major commission for Webb, then only 27, and it remains his masterwork: a building of deep originality that combined medieval vernacular traditions with modern domestic comfort in a way that had no precedent in Victorian architecture. The house was revolutionary not in its novelty but in its conviction: that good design, honest materials, and craftsmanship were moral as well as aesthetic values.
The building itself is of warm red brick — hence the name — with steeply pitched tiled roofs, arched doorways, and L-shaped plan that created a courtyard garden. Webb rejected the classical symmetry and formal ornament of mainstream Victorian architecture in favour of irregular, organic forms that grew from the requirements of the interior and the traditions of English vernacular building. Every detail was considered: the wells, the staircases, the fireplaces, the built-in furniture, the garden walls. Nothing was added for show; everything was chosen because it was beautiful and right.
Morris and his circle of friends — Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown — decorated the interiors with paintings, embroideries, stained glass, and furniture of extraordinary quality. Some of these decorations survive, including the painted settle, painted tiles, and fragments of Burne-Jones's ceiling paintings in the drawing room. The house became the nucleus of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. (later Morris & Co.), the design firm Morris founded in 1861 to produce textiles, wallpapers, furniture, and stained glass of the quality he had found impossible to buy.
Morris lived at Red House for only five years (1860–65) before financial pressures forced him to move back to London. The house then passed through various owners before being acquired by the National Trust in 2003. A major restoration has stabilised the building, conserved the surviving decorations, and opened the house to the public in a condition that — while not fully restored to its 1860s glory — gives a vivid and deeply moving sense of what Morris and his friends created here, and why it mattered.
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Plan Your Visit
💡 Visitor Tips
- Book tickets well in advance online — visitor numbers are strictly limited and popular dates sell out, particularly weekends in summer. Walk-up entry is rarely available.
- The guided tour is the only way to see the interior — it typically lasts 45–60 minutes and is led by knowledgeable National Trust volunteers with real enthusiasm for the subject.
- Allow time for the garden, which is as important to understanding Red House as the interior.
- The nearest cafe is in Bexleyheath town centre — Red House itself has no catering facilities.
- Bexleyheath is reached easily from London Bridge in under 30 minutes by Southeastern train — it is not as remote as it might seem from central London.
- Red House is often combined with nearby Eltham Palace (English Heritage), which offers a fascinating contrast as an example of Art Deco design of the 1930s.
Highlights
The Architecture of Philip Webb
Philip Webb's design for Red House was unlike anything else being built in England in 1859. He rejected fashionable Gothic Revival ornament in favour of a building drawing directly on English medieval domestic architecture — its brick, tiled roofs, and straightforward honesty of construction. The irregular L-shaped plan, steeply pitched roofs, arched doorways, massive brick chimneys, and integration of garden walls with the house created something that felt both ancient and entirely new.
Webb's conviction — design every detail, use only honest materials, let the plan follow the needs of the occupants — became the founding manifesto of Arts and Crafts architecture, influencing buildings from Lutyens to Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Painted Decorations by Morris and Burne-Jones
The interiors were decorated by Morris, Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and their circle with paintings, embroideries, stained glass, and furniture of extraordinary originality. Several elements survive: the massive painted settle in the hallway; fragments of Burne-Jones's ceiling paintings depicting medieval romance in the drawing room; painted tiles in the fireplaces; and Morris's own embroidered panels.
These surviving fragments give a tantalising glimpse of what the fully decorated house must have looked like — a total work of art unlike anything else in Victorian England, and the direct forerunner of the Gesamtkunstwerk concept of total artistic environment.
The Origins of Morris & Co.
Red House was the workshop in which the Arts and Crafts aesthetic was hammered out. Morris found he could not buy furniture, wallpapers, or textiles of the quality he wanted for his house, so he and his friends made their own. This experience directly led to the founding of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co.
in 1861 — the firm that became Morris & Co. and transformed British interior design. The challenge of decorating Red House to the standard they desired gave birth to an industry.
The house is both the origin point of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the direct ancestor of the modern design studio — its impact on 20th-century design and craft cannot be overstated.
The Garden and Courtyard
The garden was integral to Webb's design — not an afterthought but a fundamental element. The L-shaped house embraced a courtyard that became a garden of real beauty, with a well, rose-covered arbours, and deliberately informal planting in contrast to clipped Victorian formality. Morris described the garden as 'the building's shadow' — a space as carefully considered as any interior.
The National Trust has worked to restore it to something of its original character, with period-appropriate planting and the reinstated well and arbours. It remains one of the most evocative garden settings associated with any figure in the history of British design.
Collections
The House Tour
Guided tour of the principal rooms including the hallway with painted settle, drawing room with surviving Burne-Jones ceiling fragments, and garden — the core of the Red House experience.
Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement
Contextual displays on William Morris, Philip Webb, and the founding of the Arts and Crafts Movement, drawing on archival material and period photographs of the house as it appeared in the 1860s.
The Garden
The courtyard garden restored to reflect the 1860s planting scheme, with original well, arbours, and herbaceous borders inspired by Morris's descriptions.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.