Exhibition celebrating 75 years of the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow - by Joyce

Jane and I enjoyed our trip to see this exhibition last week.

Everything in the exhibition had either been made or owned by William Morris, although he had never been further east than Italy he was very interested in items he saw in shops and those brought back by friends.

As well as textiles and ceramics he collected manuscripts, books and metalwork. His own designs were greatly inspired by Art from the Islamic World, he studied methods of making carpets and owned Ottoman velvets.

Some of his best-known designs such as Flower Garden, Wild Tulip and Granada were directly inspired by Islamic designs. We liked seeing, alongside his own designs, the beautiful examples of Islamic textiles and seeing closeup the fine stitching.

Two brass peacocks were on display that feature in some of his designs.

We looked briefly at the Permanent Collection (which we have seen before) and since the café was too crowded we left the gallery to look for another.

Taking the road less travelled through an older and quieter part of Walthamstow we came across St. Mary’s church where they were advertising

“coffees “.  When we went in we found that they were also doing toasties so stopped there for lunch before making our way back to the station.

The exhibition finishes on 9th March and well worth a visit. It’s free by the way. There was a lot of Morris inspired merchandise in the shop, very tempting!