Renovations & Re-presentations

Two ground floor rooms at Kelmscott Manor have been renovated in recent years. Their re-presentation has created a very different feel to both
rooms.

The Green Room

Following the abrupt closure of Kelmscott Manor after severe flooding in July 2007, major works had to be undertaken to the room worst-affected in the Manor, the Green Room.

The Manor's consultant conservation architect, Paul Richold, had a clear vision for this room. The concrete floor slab was replaced by a limecrete slab, overlaid with a lined and ruled screed of lime with Ashton Keynes grit. At the entrance to the room, two slabs of Farmington limestone. Away with the fitted seagrass carpet.

The walls - knocked back and lime plastered - were painted with an off-white (Farrow & Ball 'White Tie') distemper. To the metalwork of the windows two shades of grey were introduced. All of which signaled a departure from stark white paintwork and the introduction of a softer backdrop to the Green Room's furnishings.

This post-flood focus on the Green Room also provided an opportunity for restoration of the stone fire surround and for much-needed conservation of the tiles in the fireplace. Outside, a French drain was extended along all walls of the room.

The Old Kitchen

From April 2009 visitors to Kelmscott Manor have been able to enjoy the newly presented Old Kitchen.

Simply furnished, with the large Webb table (previously in the scullery) at its centre, the architecture and materials of this beautiful room dominate. The walls have been hung with a selection of woodcarvings of extraordinary quality from the Society's collection - five 15th and 16th Century panels with strong west country connections and a pair of Icelandic carved bed boards, probably brought home by Morris from his travels to Iceland in the 1870s.

"William Morris responded to Kelmscott Manor as a modest piece of Elizabethan architecture, which he never imagined as cluttered with furniture", explained Peter Cormack FSA, our Honorary Curator. "This presentation of the old kitchen seeks to deliver the feeling of stillness which Morris would have enjoyed. The display of woodcarvings is a start, by the Society of Antiquaries, to explore the potential to exhibit more of its collections at Kelmscott."

Other furniture brought into this space includes the Gimson chairs from the north attic, a chest belonging to Emery Walker (on loan from the Morris Memorial Hall) and a chest that was in the screens passage - on which continues to rest the Visitors' book, this now being the last room for visitors on a general public open day. In the fireplace is a concentration of the blue and grey salt-glazed Gres de Flandres stoneware collected by Morris. Decoration of the room has followed the Green Room scheme, with White Tie distemper on the walls and slate and grey ironwork at the windows.