Later Owners of Red House
Visitors to Red House are able to see a house and garden that bear much resemblance to the original house, both in spirt and structure. Though there have been changes in colours and styles - the house now has wallpaper for example - it is not too difficult to imagine what it was like in the early 1860s. This is a tribute to the people who have had the house since Morris left in 1865. In only one period - during the 1930s and 1940s was the integrity of the house underbreal threat.
Some of the owners were from artistic backgrounds - two editors of the Studio magazine, as well as a number of architects. They have always, as modified the house - as Morris would have wished and expected - while retaining the spirit and philosophy. The three major pieces of furniture still there as well as the painting (and the hope that there are other hidden treasures) means that the house has always born some resembalnce to 'poem' that Morris and Webb constructed.
The ownership over the 50 years of the house by Ted and Doris Hollamby and their friends and family secured and protected the house and its purchase in 2003 by the national Trust means it is safe in perpetuity. Howver, all the owners had some impact and one of the pleasures of the house is the way in which the various 'moderns' have been combined with the various 'olds' - the Arts and Crafts screen from the 1890s, the stained glass door windows from the 1950s, the Morris wallpapers from the last twenty years. Morris would, we can hope, have approved at what the last 140 years have done to the house.