Sir Emery Walker’s riverside house in Hammersmith
One of the most historic homes in the capital, Sir Emery Walker’s riverside house in Hammersmith, has been pipped at the post for a major award.
Regarded as the best preserved arts & crafts house in the country, 7 Hammersmith Terrace was in the running for the Apollo Museum Opening of the Year award – competing against large-scale galleries and museums in France, the United States and South Africa.
It recently reopened after a £1million, 18-month restoration which included a new roof. The house was occupied from 1903 to 1933 by Sir Emery Walker, the typographer and close friend of Morris.
The award has been made by Apollo magazine for the past 25 years, marking achievements in the art and museum worlds. Emery Walker’s House was one of six international museums shortlisted, with the eventual winner named as the Musée d’arts de Nantes.
A modest Georgian terraced house crammed with arts & crafts treasures, the restoration of Emery Walker’s House involved the removal for cataloguing and conservation of 6,000 items.
The work was made possible by Heritage Lottery funding through the Arts & Crafts Hammersmith project, a joint initiative with The William Morris Society.
Only eight visitors are permitted inside at any time, two days a week. Tours from March 2018 can be booked on the Emery Walker website which also has information on the building’s inhabitants and history.
Next year a virtual tour will be added.
Michael Hall, who chairs the Emery Walker Trust, said: “We were thrilled to have been shortlisted; it is a great honour to be up there alongside such institutions as the National Gallery of Ireland and Freer Gallery of Art, Washington.
“We are delighted that our endeavours to restore this arts & crafts treasure and to share it with the public have been recognised by such an authoritative source as Apollo”.
For more information and to book tickets visit the Emery Walker House website.
