1. Red House

After negotiating the complexities of purchasing split ticket extensions from London Bridge station the Salads were on their way to the far reaches of zone 5, to Bexley Heath. The destination for our first Salad-y outing was Red House, the home of the founder of the Arts & Crafts movement, William Morris. Completed in 1860 by his architect and collaborator Phillip Webb the Red house was intended to be a haven for cutting edge artists, auters and their muses in the midst of the green fields of Kent. As the capital expanded, the Red House now finds itself nestled in the middle of classic suburbia. Within the context of the 1930s semi-ds and bungalows that surround it, Red house is certainly (as coined by Edward Byrne Jones) ‘the beautifullest place on earth’. But in an unassuming, quirky, charming kind of way. Red house is a collection of attractive, well formed parts – the corbelled brick work, round arches, pointy turret roofs and assymetrical elevation. There is no hierarchy to how these bits come together, and the plan in general is quite free flowing, but works to intended effect. It feels like a collaborative piece of domestic architecture, embodying Morris socialist philosophy about craftsmen collaborating, using local materials to produce beautiful things.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/red-house/