A VISIT TO CAMBRIDGE: THE DAVID PARR HOUSE AND THE PAINTED CHURCH

The David Parr House is an extraordinary time capsule of Arts & Crafts decoration in a late 19th-century artisan’s house. Parr used the knowledge gained through his long-standing work for F.R. Leach & Sons in painting the interior of his own house, using the patterns of G.F. Bodley, William Morris and Charles Eamer Kempe. After the departure of Parr’s granddaughter, who lived there for 85 years, the house has been saved by a private trust which has now added a visitor’s centre in the next-door house. We will visit this fascinating survivor in groups of six in the morning. In the afternoon, the group will visit Bodley’s All Saints’ Church (‘The Painted Church’), which was decorated by Leach’s artist workmen as an Arts & Crafts treasure house, including stained glass by Morris, Burne-Jones, Philip Webb and Ford Madox Brown.