Museums

Red House

The house Philip Webb built for William Morris in 1859, red brick and steep roofs in a Bexleyheath orchard, with Burne-Jones's paintings still on the walls, by guided tour.

Morris was twenty-five and newly married to Jane Burden when he bought an orchard in the Kent village of Upton and asked his friend Philip Webb to design him a house that would be, in his words, very medieval in spirit: an L of plain red brick, unrendered when every villa was stuccoed, with steep tiled roofs, pointed arches and a well under a conical cap in the garden. It was finished in 1860 and his friends came to help fill it, Rossetti and Burne-Jones painting the walls and furniture, and the work of furnishing it led straight to the founding of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861, the firm that became Morris & Co.; his daughters Jenny and May were born here. It proved too far from the works and too dear to run, and after five years he sold it and never came back. Burne-Jones's wall paintings of the Wedding of Sir Degrevant survive in the drawing room, a painted ceiling and stained glass with them, and in 2013 a whole mural by Morris and his circle was found behind a wardrobe. The National Trust bought the house in 2003 from the architect Edward Hollamby, who had lived in it since 1952 and saved it.

Where

Red House Lane, Bexleyheath, DA6 8JF

Nearest station

Bexleyheath · 12 min walk

Hours

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 8 September 2026.

May to October only, by pre-booked guided tour on the hour. Adults £14, children £7.

NearbyMuseums

• Danson House10 min walk
• Hall Place28 min walk
• Eltham Palace1 hr 12 min walk

NearbyOther Categories

• Lesnes AbbeyMonuments & Ruins47 min walk
• Scadbury Moated ManorMonuments & Ruins1 hr 8 min walk

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.