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William Morris (1834-96) was the most influential designer of the 19th century.

His work in decorative arts included book design, furniture, stained glass windows, tiles, tapestries, textiles and wallpapers.

He was also a writer, publisher, environmental campaigner and one of the main founders of the emerging socialist movement of the 19th century.

Morris trained as an architect and had early unfilled ambitions to be painter. As a student at Oxford he met the artist Edward Burne-Jones and through this friendship he came into contact with the Pre-Raphaelite painters, such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others in their circle.

In 1859 Morris Married Jane Burden, and unconventional beauty and favourite model for the Pre-Raphaelites. He immediately commissioned his friend, the architect Phillip Webb, to build them a new home on land he had bought in Bexleyheath, Kent. Now a suburb of London, Bexleyheath was then a rural area. Morris wanted a modern home that would never the less be "very medieval in spirit." This is exactly what Webb gave him.