Culture close to home, and more procrastination
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 10 July 2005 16:08:28
Yesterday I went to a fabulous place, which I'd not heard of until someone I know from SoF asked if I wanted to go with her. It's not that far from me, a bit out in the sticks if you're not in south London, but worth the trip I think - The Red House, home of the artist and designer William Morris between 1860-65. It was obtained by the National Trust only a few years back, and they're still going through unearthing all that's there (they showed us some patterns that had been painted on a ceiling, but then painted over, and there are all sorts of items of furniture and walls and stuff where there are hidden treasures waiting to be unearthed). You can only go round the house on a guided tour, but that was well worth it, our guide was really enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. The house was a commission by Morris, designed by Philip Webb (another of the Art and Craft movement set) originally built with the intention of becoming an artists' community. That never happened, although lots of the Art and Craft/Pre-Raphaelites were regular visitors and friends and their influence is all over the place, although it did feel a bit odd that such a fabulous place, so important in art history, is stuck in the middle of a nondescript Bexleyheath housing estate. It is ironic that Morris - despite being very rich indeed a committed socialist - intended his art and designs to benefit the masses and improve their lives by being hand- (as opposed to machine-/mass-) produced, but because it was therefore so labour intensive only the rich upper classes could afford it. And even more ironic that over the last 30 or 40 years or so Morris's designs have become popular and affordable - through being mass-produced. He must be spinning in his grave.
The house also had lovely gardens, so it was great to stroll through them with C. imagining we were pre-Raphaelite beauties with long flowing red hair. Sadly the reality is somewhat different (especially in my case! lol). My photos are here - sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures indoors - you'll just have to visit to see!
In other news, yesterday the contract on my house arrived for me to sign. The buyer's solicitors are asking for a few bits of paperwork, one of which my solicitors have no idea what they mean, and another is a document which I'm 100% sure I don't have and never have had. So I'll need to get that sorted out before I sign anything, but it is a suddenly really stark reminder that that's it, I'm really going soon. So I did intend to start going through all my masses of paperwork (after the burglary, where all my files and paperwork were thrown all over the floor, I just picked them all up and put them in tidy piles, and ever since have been putting off actually going through them and sorting them out because it's going to be so arduous!), and was going to do it today, as the first step in organising myself to get packing up my stuff. But then I thought, if I only have 5 more weekends here *and* it's sunny today I'm going to enjoy the garden while I still can. So, I got drawing again :) This is another little corner of my garden, I must say I'm not that confident about drawing the buildings in the background so rather gave up on them, but there are elements of this picture I quite like. Here's what I was aiming for:
and here's what I came up with:
Much more fun than sorting through paperwork. It's still looming though - I really can't put it off much longer!
(forgot to add - here are a few pics from the garden today)