The William Morris Society
Richard Cavendish visits an association dedicated to the 19th-century poet, socialist and craftsman.
To call William Morris a many-sided man is almost an understatement. Designer, craftsman, poet, businessman, conservationist, polemicist and utopian Socialist, he himself used to wonder which of half a dozen people was the real him. As designer and craftsman his touch extended to textiles, tapestries, embroideries, carpets, wallpapers, furniture, ceramics, tiles, books and typefaces, and stained glass. Friend and colleague of Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a devoted admirer of Ruskin's ideals, Morris was the virtual founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. He created something close to a revolution in interior design, his firm's stained-glass windows rank among the glories of English churches, he was one of the great printers of all time and his textile and wallpaper designs are still very much in demand.
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