KELMSCOTT HOUSE APPEAL

Kelmscott House in Hammersmith, London, is the Georgian house on the river Thames where Morris lived for 18 years, where he died and where he did much of his best work, including the writing of his great Utopian novel, News from Nowhere. The William Morris Society wants to make the house available to the public. The Borough of Hammersmith also desires to use the house to display their famous collection of Victorian paintings, the Cecil French Bequest. This includes many works by Edward Burne-Jones, Morris's best friend, which will thus be appropriately housed. The Morris Society has joined with the Borough of Hammersmith in a scheme to have a gallery, to open the rooms most associated with Morris to the public and to act as a hands-on education centre for school children learning about Morris and the crafts.

We have made an application for funding to the National Heritage Lottery Fund because at this moment there is a unique opportunity to acquire the lease which will cost about £850,000. If we don't take advantage of it, the house is likely to remain inaccessible to the public for the foreseeable future. But now we face a crucial problem. In order to qualify for lottery funding, we have to find at least 10% partnership funds - nominally 25% but we have been told 10% might do - so our contribution must be at least £85,000. We have already raised £61,000. We must find another £24,000 and we have only one week in which to do it. At this point we are not asking for money, but for pledges. The pledges will only come into effect if our bid is successful; we then have two months to collect the money.