Emery Walker's House Opens New Exhibition
Celebrating printing partnerships and the private press movement
Left: Dining Room Emery Walker's House. Right: July, from 1929 Almanac, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, with woodcut illustrations by Eric Ravilious. Picture: Lucinda MacPherson
July 15, 2026
Emery Walker’s House in Hammersmith, recently named one of Europe’s best house museums by The World of Interiors, opens a major new exhibition this week exploring the pioneering collaborations that shaped modern typography and fine printing. Printing Partnerships: Emery Walker & the Private Press Movement runs from 16 July to 28 November as part of a year-long programme marking the 175th anniversary of Walker’s birth.
The exhibition traces Walker’s influence from his early involvement with William Morris’s Kelmscott Press to his final collaboration with Wilfred Merton and Bruce Rogers on a fine-press edition of Homer’s Odyssey. The translation by T.E. Lawrence is widely regarded as one of the high points of Walker’s typographical career and a fitting conclusion to his lifelong dedication to craftsmanship in print.
Walker is best known for co-founding The Doves Press with T.J. Cobden-Sanderson at the turn of the 20th century. Both men lived at 7 Hammersmith Terrace, now preserved as an Arts and Crafts museum. The Doves Press became synonymous with elegant simplicity, producing unillustrated volumes in restrained colour and uniform vellum bindings. Between 1900 and 1916, the press issued forty books that remain among the finest examples of 20th-century typography, with its five-volume English Bible often described as the crowning achievement.
The new exhibition situates these collaborations within the wider private press movement, which sought to revive traditional printing methods and elevate book design to an art form. Visitors will see rare examples of Walker’s work alongside contextual material illustrating how his partnerships helped define the aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts era.
Printing Partnerships will be on display at Emery Walker’s House, 7 Hammersmith Terrace, from 16 July to 28 November. Visits are by pre-booked guided tour only. Further details are available at emerywalker.org.uk/visit.
The exhibition is organised by the Emery Walker Trust, a registered charity dedicated to preserving the house and promoting understanding of the Arts and Crafts movement and Walker’s legacy.
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