You are probably saying, ‘Who is Emery Walker?’ Well, he was a printer, engraver, and photographer (1851-1933). He was also a close friend of William Morris, who lived a short walk away at Kelmscott House. Yet the two met accidentally on a train coming home from Bethnal Green after a political meeting. They hit it off and later set up the Hammersmith Socialist League, a branch of the Socialist Democratic Federation (forerunner of the Labour Party) in 1883. The men also discovered they both had an interest in printing.
Emery Walker’s start in life was very different. At 13, he became the main breadwinner of the family as his father went blind. He stuck out a job as an apprentice to a linen draper for many years. He hated it. It wasn’t until he changed jobs and worked for Alfred Dawson’s Typographic Etching Company that he found his true vocation. In 1885, he went into partnership with a colleague, Walter Boutall as Walker & Boutall Automatic & Process Engravers (later Emery Walker Ltd) and specialised in fine printing, engraving and photography.
It was to Emery Walker that William Morris turned when he wanted to produce books. Morris was a master at many things in life, but typeface wasn’t one of them. When Morris formed the Kelmscott Press, he asked Walker to join him. Walker declined, but his help was invaluable.
Originally Emery Walker lived at 3 Hammersmith Terrace. He had longed to live in this terrace, but the first house was a little too small. He lived there with his wife Mary Grace and his daughter Dorothy (1878-1963). This house, and number 7 where he moved in 1879, were rented to Walker, though later he bought number 7. Mary Grace Walker suffered illness throughout her life and spent a greater part of her life living at a property she owned in Surrey.
The house at 7 Hammersmith Terrace is unique in that when the last person living at the house (Dorothy’s companion Elizabeth de Hass died (1918-1999)), it passed to a trust she had set up for the property herself. Everything you see in the house is original. The only alterations carried out by the trust were to remove the kitchen (which was the telephone room and is now the reception for guided tours). The kitchen was moved from the basement when Dorothy was living there. As a town house, it has many floors, and at seventy-years old she wanted to make life easier for herself. She also installed a bathroom. The basement was converted into a flat, which was rented out. This is still the case.
There is no photography allowed inside the house (you can take photos in the garden), but the website is excellent and you can explore everything through photographs of both the rooms and objects of note inside. Please do explore the website here. There is much more information too about the house, people and their relationships. There is also a virtual tour.
For me, this was an amazing tour. Being a huge William Morris fan (have I mentioned that before?!), it was wonderful to see original wallpaper on the walls, and a line of photographs of William Morris. The most touching thing was a drawer in Walker’s bureau, which held some items of Morris’, including several pairs of glasses, a dish (possibly for ink) and a lock of William Morris’ hair which was taken on the day he died.
Furniture in the house is a mix of arts and craft and older things, but a greater part belonged to Philip Webb, another close friend, and architect of Kelmscott Manor (Morris’ house in Gloucestershire). The rooms are stunning, and I could happily move in tomorrow!
There is an exhibition space in the room adjoining the drawing room. Currently, this is about the Doves Press which Walker set up with Thomas Cobden-Sanderson originally from number 1 Hammersmith Terrace, and named after The Dove public house set between Walker and Morris’ house (the pub is still there and overlooks the River Thames). The Doves type is modern in appearance and is based on a 15th century Venetian model. You can read all about it here. It is a fascinating story. Basically, the two men owned the type together, but Cobden-Sanderson worried that when he died Walker would use it to produce books not of the same high literature, Cobden-Sanderson, over a period of a few months, threw the type over Hammersmith Bridge into the Thames. Parts of it have recently been recovered from the river, and the exhibition holds a piece of it to view. The exhibition is about to close, but you can still view pieces of Doves Press type on the website, and there is a video too.
The dining room and the drawing room have views over the River Thames, as does the bedroom which was Dorothy’s, and later Elizabeth de Hass. Emery Walker’s bedroom was in the attic, which is now offices.
The garden is beautiful, and immediately you walk out from the conservatory, the fragrance hits you. Originally, this would have been the front of the house, as there was a small walkway along the back of these houses. Later, the walkways were incorporated into the gardens and the entrances switched from back to the front of the houses.
At number 8 Hammersmith Terrace, May Morris (William Morris’ daughter) lived, and worked with her embroideries. It was not a very happy house, due to the gradual breakdown on May’s marriage to Henry Halliday Sparling (who William Morris referred to as ‘the drip’! He never minced his words).
I came away from this house utterly overwhelmed by it. It has a great atmosphere and the furnishings and decorations are beautiful.
After leaving the house, I set out to find Thomas Cobden-Sanderson’s house. I walked past it twice before I recognised it because it is clad in scaffolding and overgrown foliage. But there is Blue Plaque. I wonder what is going to happen to the house. It would be good if it was opened to the public, but I guess it depends on what is left of it inside.
Also in the terrace is the house of Edward Johnston who designed the type for London Underground. This seems to be a great area for artists and crafters. On my way back I saw a house once lived in by Eric Ravilious, and into Chiswick there is Hogarth’s House, which I have visited in the past.
My London+ 