Kelmscott House
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Kelmscott House is a historic building in Hammersmith, the London home of William Morris from April 1879 to his death in October 1896.
Originally called "The Retreat", Morris renamed it after the Oxfordshire village of Kelmscott where he had lived at Kelmscott Manor from June 1871.
Kelmscott House is a Georgian brick mansion at 26 Upper Mall in Hammersmith, overlooking the River Thames. Nearby, Morris began his "adventure in printing" with his private press, the Kelmscott Press, which he started in 1891 at 16 Upper Mall, Hammersmith.
The building is a private house, though the basement and coach house (entrance serve as headquarters of the William Morris Society, and may be visited by appointment.
It was at Kelmscott House that Sir Francis Ronalds set up a primitive telegraph in 1816. He ran eight miles of cable (encased in glass tubing) through the back garden and succeeded in getting an electrical signal along the full length. He contacted the Admiralty, but they were not interested at that time in telegraph.
[edit] Further reading
- Fiona MacCarthy (1994). William Morris: A Life For Our Time. Faber and Faber.
