Hidden London: William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow’s Lloyd Park

They say opposites attract. Perhaps houses do too? In a quiet Walthamstow park stands a building once home to two innovative Londoners who might have disagreed about almost everything: William Morris and Edward Lloyd.

Mention William Morris, and most people think of beautiful fabric or wallpaper designs inspired by nature. There’s scarcely a country house that has not, at some stage, been adorned by the wonderfully named Strawberry Thief or an aspirant Chelsea kitchen decked out in Willow Bough. But Morris was much more than the inspiration for a pattern on a Liberty dress.

One of the most influential cultural figures of Victorian Britain, Morris was a poet and author, as well as a designer, an early campaigner for socialism, a founder of the heritage conservation lobby and a key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. His writing is even credited with helping to establish today’s fantasy genre. He challenged the inequalities and ugliness of industrial society, championing craft traditions. The museum dedicated to his life and work is in Walthamstow, in the house where he spent his teenage years, alongside his widowed mother and eight siblings.

Water House was built in the mid-18th century. A typical Georgian mansion, it was one of a number of fine houses in the large village of Walthamstow, then reached from London through fields by way of a chain of villages — Leyton, Clapton, Hackney. It was a rural retreat favoured by stockbrokers and merchants: far enough to escape the grime of the city, but close enough to keep an eye on business. It’s a handsome building, classically symmetrical but set apart by two semi-cylindrical bays rising the full three storeys, a pair of giant rugby props waiting for the hooker in between.