On Saturday it was brilliant to see Grayson Perry's beautiful, huge 'Walthamstow' tapestry hanging in the newly refurbished William Morris Gallery. I had recently watched Grayson Perry's fantastic TV series on class taste, in which he observes the ubiquitous Morris decorations in the homes of the one of the middle class tribes along with the other identifiers of organic vegetables, Le Crouset dishes, the Guardian, recycling containers and full bookshelves. (Sounds too familiar for my liking) I long for more Grayson Perry documentaries, he is such an eloquent and funny narrator.
The William Morris Gallery sits in a gorgeous Georgian house where the Morris family once lived, in the middle of a moated park. We sat under a tree and observed with Perry's class lens the trendy young parents (we were guessing ex-Hackney dwellers). The tribe markers being skinny jeans and converse for the women and men with rolled up jeans, a scruffy band t-shirt and kid dangling off an arm nonchalantly while drinking a beer.
