A New Exhibition arrives at Emery Walker’s House

To celebrate the 175th anniversary of his birth, Emery Walker’s House has organised a programme of celebratory events throughout the year, kicking off next month with a new exhibition opening on March 5th.

It will shed light on the man whose talent both for craft and for friendship underline the house’s remarkable collection and its story.

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Emery Walker by G Clausen courtesy of Art Workers’ Guild

Text Box: Emery Walker by G Clausen courtesy of Art Workers’ GuildThe exhibition will include seldom-seen items from the house’s archives, and poignant gifts and mementoes from his illustrious circle of friends, which included William Morris and George Bernard Shaw.

Several portraits of Walker will be displayed, including a special loan from The Art Workers’ Guild. These alongside his personal and professional belongings will paint a portrait of both Sir Emery Walker the figure and the person.

The exhibition’s title and theme were inspired by an anecdote from after Walker’s death in 1933. His daughter received a letter from T.E. Lawrence where he expressed his condolences and regret that the world should lose such a remarkable man, who was, he said, ‘both a figure and a person.’

As obituaries and tributes poured in, this duality was reinforced repeatedly. Friends and collaborators wrote to praise him as an expert in his crafts, a master of the Art Worker’s Guild, a teacher, an artist, and the driving force behind the private press movement, among other things. Equally, they wrote to lament the loss of a dear friend, a generous, kind, and ‘almost reprehensibly amiable man’ (according to Bernard Shaw, another close friend.)

Emery Walker is memorialized now by a plaque outside his house as a ‘Typographer and Antiquary’ but, compared with his more famous friends and colleagues, his memory has faded since his death, which this small exhibition in his own home hopes to redress.

Taryn Power, the exhibition’s curator says, ” Emery himself – who seemed to have been naturally self-effacing in life – can sometimes get lost behind the hugely famous names in his immediate circle, even in the house which now bears his name. It has been both a fun challenge and a genuine joy to dig into the archives and accounts of his life to get a clear picture of him for this exhibition. It became clear how much of what makes the house special stems from Emery: his love for his work in so many different areas, his generosity to friends and colleagues – who reciprocated with gifts that make up so much of the collection – and his love for his family – which was returned in kind by Dorothy’s work to preserve his legacy.’

Emery Walker: ‘Both a Figure and a Person’ will be on display at Emery Walker’s House, 7 Hammersmith Terrace, from March 5th to July 15th 2026. Visits are by pre-booked guided tour only. emerywalker.org.uk/visit