hales marshall design architects visited The Red House, Bexleyheath, which the National Trust have owned for the last 10 years.
The Red House commissioned by William Morris and designed by the architect Phillip Webb, was completed in 1860. The National Trust quotes William Morris as saying:
“I got my friend to build me a house very medieval in spirit in which I lived for 5 years, and set myself to decorating it. ”
The house is early Arts and Crafts in design but still has echoes of the Victorian Gothic style, it has an extraordinary architectural and social significance. The rooms of the Red House give a glimpse of William Morris’s earliest designs and decorative schemes and the conservation work that the National Trust is undertaking is revealing Pre-Raphaelite wall paintings and Morris’s early floral patterns.
It is worth visiting for not only the architecture but also the furniture, stained glass, paintings and garden design