William Morris Gallery Reopens With a Radical Rehang 130 Years After the Designer's Death

The house where William Morris spent his teenage years has opened its doors again with a fresh look at the designer, writer and socialist. The William Morris Gallery, in a Grade II-listed manor house in Walthamstow, north-east London, reopened on Saturday 3 October 2026 after its first major rehang since 2012. The reopening marks the 130th anniversary of Morris's death.

The project cost around £1.5 million, raised from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation and Waltham Forest Council. Six gallery spaces have been transformed with Sam Jacob Studio, which aimed to give the building a more homely feel through colour and furnishings. "What we tried to do all the way through was to try to bring a bit more of a domestic sensibility to it," said Sam Jacob. Time Out reports that the new spaces were designed in consultation with local residents and community groups.

Visitors will find much-loved textiles, wallpapers and furniture alongside new discoveries. Among them are a lock of Morris's grey hair, cut after his death by his friend John Carruthers; a dress Morris designed for his wife Jane to wear while modelling for his painting La Belle Iseult (1858); and his banner for the Hammersmith Socialist League, lent by the Working Class Movement Library and on public display for the first time. An embroidery design by Morris's daughter May and books from the collection of his daughter Jenny are also on show.

The new displays do not shy away from complexity. One room, with a "socialist red" ceiling, sets Morris's political ideals against the luxury goods sold by his firm, Morris & Co. Others highlight the women in his life and the influence of Islamic art on his designs. "Morris said that the secret to a happy life is proper attention to the details of the everyday," said Hadrian Garrard, who leads the gallery. "I think that's quite a nice thing with Morris: to look at the complexities of being a human being."

Alongside the permanent collection, a new exhibition, Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK, runs until 28 March 2027, and a project space called Morris Today is expected to open in 2027. For a museum shaped with its local community, it is a reopening that invites people to rediscover a figure whose ideas about beauty, work and everyday life still resonate.