Friday 17 July 2009

The Red House Arts and Crafts show

This last weekend, Chris and I drove to Bexley Heath in Kent (south east London) to do an Arts and Crafts show at the Red House. Here we are at the front of our house all packed up and ready to go. My car is on a high pavement here and the road is down there on the right with a drop of about 3 feet that gradually runs down to nothing at the end of the pavement. It was easier for us to load up at the front.I wasn't looking forward to the drive as our motorways can get quite crowded, specially the M25 which circles around London. Here is the approach to getting onto the M25. The journey should take 2 and 3/4 hours, but it took 4 hours due to the volume of traffic which is always bad on a Friday afternoon/evening.So, we finally made it to the Red House. As you can see, this house was built for William Morris by his architect friend Philip Webb. Morris was the instigator of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and he inspired many people around him to get away from the mass produced factory way of making furniture and other items used in the home like textiles, pottery etc.The Arts and Crafts fair we were invited to show at was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Red House being built. It is a fantastic building and so this first of three posts is showing the house from various angles. This is the main entrance.A side view.The beautiful round well.An arched back entrance to the house.The other side view.I love these red tiles and the different angles in the roof.Here are a couple of shots of the very sweet windows with arched decoration.I really loved this dinky little window. Very impractical I should think!Here's an overall shot of all the different angles used in the roof and all the different shaped windows. It's a great building. What must it have been like to live here!In my next post, I'll show some of the Arts and Craft workers stands including ours.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah! the joys of driving on the M25. {:((

Rural Rambler said...

Very interesting building. It looks alot like some of the home styles in a part of St. Louis called St. Louis Hills. Not so grand as your building in the picture though. I do love the arched windows! It really is a grand Red House and the round windows are spectacular.

The Arts and Crafts stands will be fun!

Kelly said...

This place is gorgeous. I can't wait to find out what your art and craft is!! Don't keep us in suspense too long!

Jenny said...

Hi Roy, yes, not the nicest of experiences. I had to travel almost half of it to get to Bexley Heath! YUK!

Hi RR, it's got to be one of the nicest places that we've gone to show Chris's work.

Hi Kelly, well I've just done my second post this evening. There was some great stuff there.

Quiet Paths said...

What an amazing place! Did you get to stay there too or did you have to get a B&B? I've been on the M25 and was terrified. I didn't have to drive however.

Eve said...

I'd be scared driving if I was on the wrong side of the road too Jenny!!! Ha Ha!
Love the building!
I started to comment a couple days ago when my compter froze! Sorry so late!

Mary said...

What a wonderful house! I love all the angles and turrets and roof lines and just everything. Would be cool to live in a house with this much character.

Jenny said...

Hi Christine, no we couldn't stay there. The first night we stayed with Chris's aunt about an hours drive away and the second night was at a Travel Inn about 20 mins away from the Red House. The M25 can be a bit of a white knuckle ride sometimes! (-:

Hi Evie, no need to apologise, I know how that goes! Hope a thaw is in progress! (-:

Hi Mary, I loved all the quirkiness of it too. To big for me though, I'd hate all the dusting! (-: