The Gallery's internationally important collections illustrate William Morris's life, work and influence There are permanent displays of printed, woven and embroidered fabrics, rugs, carpets, wallpapers, furniture, stained glass and painted tiles designed by Morris himself and by Edward Burne Jones, Philip Webb, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Maddox Brown and others.

The Gallery also has displays of furniture, textiles, ceramics and glass by Morris's followers in the Arts & Crafts Movement, which flourished from the 1880s to the 1920s. Among those represented are Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and the Century Guild, William De Morgan, May Morris, Ernest Gimson, Sidney Barnsley, George Jack, C. F. A. Voysey, Harry Powell, Selwyn Image, Henry Holiday and Christopher Whall. The collections of applied art are complemented by the Brangwyn Gift of paintings, drawings and prints by the Pre-Raphaelites and other Victorian and later artists, as well as works by Sir Frank Brangwyn himself.