Home

Diary

Work

Reports

Find out more

Links

Publications

Contact

Watts Gallery Hope appeal

Since its formation, the Society for the Arts and Crafts Movement in Surrey has had a close relationship with the Watts Gallery and now supports the Gallery with their Hope appeal.

Watts Gallery was opened in 1904 to house the studio collection of George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904). The collection has 1,000 works of art including portraits, landscapes, symbolist and allegorical paintings, sculptures, a vast repository of sketches and drawings and ceramics by Mary Watts.

One hundred years since it opened, the Grade II* Listed Arts & Crafts building is at serious risk and, without support, will not survive. The Hope Appeal has been launched to restore the building, conserve the collection, place more of it on show and establish Watts Gallery as a centre for the exploration of Victorian art, social history and craft.

Hope Appeal Committee: Martin Beisly, Baroness Virginia Bottomley, Professor Rob Dickins CBE, Sir Andrew and Lady Duff Gordon, Christopher Forbes, Veronica Franklin Gould, Isabel Goldsmith, Robert Napier, Richard Ormond CBE (Chairman), Adam Prideaux.

How You Can Help

We are applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund for more than £4 million, but we must match any funding with private support. We invite you to visit the Gallery and to please consider supporting the Hope Appeal by becoming a

• Patron (annual gift of £1,000)
• Silver Patron (annual gift of £5,000)
• Gold Patron (annual gift of £10,000)
• Corporate Sponsor (a tailor-made arrangement)

or by making a gift  (Gift Aid Form in pdf format)

For more information please contact Perdita Hunt, Watts Gallery Director, or Stephanie Dennison, Hope Appeal Coordinator 01483 810235 or via email

‘The challenge at Watts Gallery is to preserve its quality of mystery and wonder, while preventing the building from physically falling to bits. It is a precious place, I know of nowhere in the world like it.’
 Maev Kennedy, Heritage Correspondent, The Guardian

Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton, Guildford, Surrey  GU3 1DQ