5 Things you didn’t know about Philip Webb

1st March 2020

Philip Speakman Webb, born January 1831 in Oxford, Webb is often referred to as the ‘father’ of the Arts & Crafts movement along with Morris. He is well renowned for his architecture – comfortable, unpretentious yet stunningly beautiful country homes, he also designed interiors too including furniture, wallpaper, stained glass and tapestries.

We thought you might want to learn more about him with our 5 lesser known facts about Philip Webb.

Growing up

For his early life, Webb grew up in Oxford. He studied in Northamptonshire and trained under John Billing, an architect in Reading who specialised in traditional building repairs. He then became a junior assistant for the office of G.E. Street, where William Morris was also working, sparking a friendship that would be both personal and business for the rest of their lives. Within this office, they were working on the architecture of churches in Oxford.

Moris & Webb

Together, Morris and Webb founded Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861 and also, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877.

Red House

The first commission Webb had was Red House in Bexleyheath Kent. This is a really famous home because it belonged to Morris and is incredibly beautiful, yet characteristically unpretentious and informal. Designed in 1859, Webb used contrasting materials which, as with lots of their projects both together and separately, had a respect for the site and for local traditions and crafts. The style pointed towards 20th century Functionalism in the bold and frank use of materials which exposed structural elements. He also designed Standen, an incredibly stunning arts-and-crafts property with Morris interiors. Today it’s a grade 2 listed building which is owned by the National Trust, it’s well worth a visit. His style is distinct, incredibly original, his work arguably became the germ of modernism as though he took influence from the Gothic Revival movement, he didn’t let this steer him and instead, he almost mixed styles and created his own. He chose comfortable and traditional, he didn’t move too much towards the Victorian elaborate designs nor the Gothic styles, he does tend to use traditional English styles with the red brick (Red House) sash windows, Tudor like chimneys etc. but you can definitely tell his influence when you look at his work as a portfolio.

Personal life

It’s known that he adored a girl in the 1860s, but it’s not known who she is and he never married. He told friend S.C. Cockerell during his later years that he could not afford to keep a wife, according to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – if he had chosen to push forward with his own practice, that might have been different. It’s been documented that he told Dante Gabriel Rossetti that anyone who wished, “to follow art with advantage to the world and with hope of competing with art before” had “very severe in the liability of disturbance from collateral courses, such as payment, popularity – position” because whilst these were not “of necessity ruinous to art” often, they “ruin the workman.” (Webb to Rossetti, 21 May 1866, in the G. W. Taylor to Webb letters, V&A). It’s clear in these letters, what a passion architecture was, over riding everything else, including money or marriage to his unidentified love.

Later life

The latter years of Webb’s life, by 1899, he was in poor health and losing money. He couldn’t afford to build a property for himself based on his savings, and so he accepted a rental from his friend William Scawen Blunt at a low price. He handed over his architecture practice to chief assistant George Jack, he moved in Jan 1901 to Caxtons, where he spent his retirement comfortably. He continued to enjoy nature as he clearly did throughout his life, creating many of the birds and other elements of nature for Morris’s work. He developed rheumatism and so he wasn’t able to go ahead working on passion projects as much as intended during his retirement, creating artefacts, but he did lots of work on house and garden, attended SPAB meetings and in 1915, passed away peacefully.

Philip Webb may not have financially left lots, but his legacy is vast. That’s in terms of his work with SPAB, his architecture, his collaborations with Morris, much of his work for Morris & Co. and Standen is now owned by the National Trust and furniture he designs is showcased in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

There’s so much to learn about Webb, we absolutely loved writing this to hopefully shed more light onto his life. If you want to read more of our blogs about key figures of this era, please read more of our blog!

We used this Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website as a reference point if you’d like to learn more.

Gorgeous Mallow Forest Green in the sunshine this week ☀️ Our heavyweight fabric is so versatile with so many crafts, what will you make? 🧵
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Wrap an order with us for a custom bundle of some wedding table linens 🌿 These Mallow Forest Green napkins and a custom table runner are now on their way to a customer to adorn their wedding tables, we’re so pleased to be involved in the tables of a few weddings this year! 🤍 If you are looking for gorgeous timeless William Morris florals for your tables, get in touch we’d love to discuss it with you ✨
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It’s coming home! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 To celebrate, take 15% off our website all weekend with code: HOME at checkout ⚽️ Hurry it ends Tuesday 🌿
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The latest project, a little quilted jacket! ✨ Our William Morris Merton Blue cotton fabric is looking gorgeous, we’ll show you it when it’s finished ☺️ Remember if you’re quilting, our cotton fabric is perfect for the projects and we have lots of complimenting designs and colour ways within our range! 🪡
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#merton #quiltedjacket #quiltingfabric #quiltingfabrics #fabricstack

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We’re often asked what the different weights of our fabrics are and what projects they’d be good for. These are our three different types of fabrics in our Brother Rabbit red colourway - cotton on the right, heavyweight in the middle and pvc on the left ✨ As you can see on the second photo, and as the name suggests, our heavyweight fabric has a thicker, heavier weave which makes it good for projects such as curtains and light upholstery 🪡 Our cotton fabric is perfect for quilting and projects such as dress making but honestly the amount of crafts that can be made out of them both are endless! 🫶🏻 Our pvc fabric is great to put straight on the table as it won’t fray so doesn’t need a hem and is easy to maintain as it’s wipe clean! All our fabrics are sold by the half metre and if you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics in any weight just let us know and we’ll get a free sample sent to you! 💌
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#williammorris #cottonfabric #quiltingfabric #curtainfabric #ukfabric

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Our William Morris range is a gorgeous mix of colours and florals, which is your favourite? In some designs such as Strawberry Thief, Brother Rabbit, Willow Bough and Mallow we have different colour ways that we digitally print in the UK so check our website for the full range! 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #preraphaelite #quiltingfabric #fatquarters #britishbusiness

Perhaps the most famous Morris design, Strawberry Thief was registered in 1883, inspired by Morris watching the thrushes stealing strawberries from under his fruit nets at the beautiful @kelmscottmanor 🍓 It was printed using the indigo dye technique, which was labour intensive and first attempted in 1875 but not perfected for 8 years 🎨 We also print Strawberry Thief in a beautiful red 🫶🏻
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#strawberrythief #historicdesigns #britishdesign #kelmscottmanor

Gorgeous Golden Lily, designed in 1897, it’s been a timelessly popular design ever since but did you know that it really increased in popularity in the 1960s when the Beatles George Harrison wore a Golden Lily shirt? ✨
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#goldenlily #wmorris #georgeharrison #englishsummer #englishdesign

Daisy is a special one to many as it was the second ever design Morris created, in 1864, made up of repeating drawn Meadow Daisies 🌼
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#morrisandco #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #daisy #daisydesign

We print Willow Bough in this beautiful blue and also in green 🌿 First designed in 1887, it was first produced as a wallpaper design which May Morris, Williams daughter, used to decorate her bedroom before being adapted for fabric in 1895 when it was block printed in Merton Abbey 🌿
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#maymorris #mertonabbey #mertonabbeymills #willowbough

Trellis is a special design as it was the first wallpaper he designed for his company, Morris & Co. In 1864 🌿 It was inspired by the rose trellis in the garden of his stunning home @redhousent that he co designed with his friend and architect, Philip Webb
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#philipwebb #redhouse #trellis #rosetrellis

We print Mallow in a wine colourway and this beautiful forest green colour ✨ It was first printed in 1879 and used to hang in the wonderful Arts & Crafts home, @standennt in the Croxley bedroom 🫶🏻
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#a

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you’ve got to make everything an event, including breakfast! 🥐
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On the table;
Willow Bough blue placemats- £38.99
Willow Bough blue napkins- £20.99 ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #preraphaelites #floralhome

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Have you seen our forest green colourways of Mallow and Brother Rabbit? 🌿 We brought them out last year and were so happy that they’re ever so popular with everyone 💚 This week we’ve also got a 10% discount running on our website with code: floralsummer 🌅
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #wmorris #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelite

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Did you know all our fabrics are printed and all our products manufactured in the UK? 🤍 It’s important to us that our William Morris fabrics are all high quality and the printed colours all beautiful to ensure all his designs live on timelessly to a high standard 🇬🇧
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Products featured; our Daisy William Morris tea towel - £10.99 ✨
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A moment for the greens! 💚 Can you name all these beautiful green William Morris designs? 🌿 All digitally printed here in the UK 🇬🇧 The good thing seeing them all together is you can see which work together for a sewing project or quilt, or layered together for your next tablescape! 🫧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelites #floralfabrics

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Did you know we do bundles of our fabric offcuts? 🌿 Perfect for sewer and quilters, they’re various sizes and designs and available on our Etsy and website - this is our latest “almost fat quarter” bundle that all are almost 50cm pieces, you could even make double sided cushions or anything! What would you create? 🪡🧵 (message us if you’d like a link to our bundles!🫧)
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#williammorris #fatquarters #fatquarterbundle #preraphaelite #quiltingcotton

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With this hot weather upon us, if you’re like us and using it to get all your washing out and dry, we thought we’d tell you our washing guidelines! 🫧 We’d recommend folding your fabric face to face when in the wash (so pattern side to pattern side!) to protect the print and then wash at 30 degrees, hang on the line to dry! 🧺 All our fabrics are digitally printed in the UK and products manufactured in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #goldenlily #flowerscape #wmorris #preraphaelite

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All our wonderful William Morris fabrics are digitally printed here in the UK, creating high quality print in incredible colour ways, if you’re quilting and crafting from our cotton and heavyweight cotton fabrics, we thought it’d be handy to have all the pattern repeats in an easy to save post ☺️
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#williammorris #craftingfabric #quiltingfabric #floralfabrics #patternfabric

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Merton in blue is one of the most beautiful William Morris designs, a timeless blue and white, it was first designed in 1888!
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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisdesign #merton #preraphaelite

If you’d like a sample of Merton, just send us a message and we’ll get one sorted out for you!
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#williammorris #floralfabric #blueandwhite #blueandwhitefabric #tablescape

Have you seen Merton before? It’s so underrated as a Morris design we think! It was actually the first design that he printed on rotary screens under the name “Morris & Co.” After their rebrand from “Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.’” 🌿 We’re just appreciating it during peony season!
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#peony #peonyseason #morris #morrisandco #preraphaelites

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Taking a closer look at beautiful Lily design, a timeless design Morris designed in 1874, if you’d like a sample of Lily, just let us know! 💌
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The table details;
Lily napkins- £16.99 for 4
Lily tablecloths- starting from £29.99 depending on size
Also mentioned;
Lily cotton by the half metre- £9.25
Lily heavyweight cotton by the half metre- £10.25
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#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #lily #quiltingcotton

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When cutting fabric stacks, we always wonder what is being made from them, we often get messages about quilts being stitched together with various tonal colours, curtains ready to be part of daily life or dresses being sewn to be worn to the next big event, so if you ever make anything from our fabrics- whether it be a huge project or a tiny one made of our scrap bundles, do let us know what you make! 🪡🧵
Can you name the designs within the photo? All sold by the half meter, £18.50 per metre of cotton, £20.50 per metre of heavyweight cotton 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisfabric #floralfabric #quiltingcotton

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Putting the spotlight on Mallow Forest Green, we love this design so much it’s so effortlessly beautiful, it’s been admired in homes for more than 147 years since William Morris designed it ✨
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The table details;
Mallow napkins- £16.99
Mallow tablecloths- starting at £29.99 depending on size
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#williammorris #weddingtablescape #weddingtableflowers #preraphaelites #artsandcraftsmovement

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Mid week tables require; a vase of gorgeous fresh flowers, as many sweet treats as you can get your hands on, and of course, a gorgeous tablecloth set- this Willow Bough blue is one of our all time favourite William Morris designs, it’s utterly timeless and so beautiful 🌿
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The table details;
Willow Bough blue napkins- £16.99
Willow Bough tablecloths- starting at £29.99 depending on size
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #englishdesign #myfloralhome

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A little update from us 🇬🇧
From 1st July, our product prices will be increasing due to continued rises in manufacturing and material costs.
We’ve worked hard to absorb these increases for as long as possible, but to continue providing the quality you expect from us, a small price adjustment is now necessary.
Every product we create is proudly printed and manufactured here in the UK, using high-quality materials and processes that ensure a finish we’re proud of. Our fabrics are all digitally printed to give a crisp finish.
If you’ve been thinking about placing an order, now is the perfect time — all orders placed before 1st July will be at our current prices.
To thank you for your support, we’re offering an exclusive discount before the new prices take effect.
Use code: thankyou
Enjoy 10% off your order until 14th June
This is the perfect opportunity to place your order at current prices and enjoy an additional saving before the increase.
Thank you for supporting a UK small business and for choosing quality. We truly appreciate every order ❤️
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Aren’t these the most gorgeous blooms!! 🫶🏻 This is our William Morris Compton design and it’s so underrated as a design, it’s beautiful year round because all the different details can be brought out of it, pair it with springtime greens to pop the green tones or autumnal burnt oranges during the colder months, it’s so versatile! ✨ Swipe to see my little photoshoot gatecrasher 😂
All our products are digitally printed and manufactured in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #compton #artsandcraftsmovement #cottagecorekitchen

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5 Things you didn’t know about Philip Webb

Growing up

Moris & Webb

Red House

Personal life

Later life

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