Workers' Liberty

Morris was more coherent when commenting more concretely on housing under socialism. In The Housing of the Poor, an article published in Justice, (19 July 1884), he wrote:
“It might be advisable, granting the existence of huge towns for the present, that the houses for workers should be built is tall blocks, in what might be called vertical streets; but that need not prevent ample room in each lodging, so as to include such comforts of space, air; and privacy as every moderately living middle class family considers itself entitled to; also it must not prevent the lodgings having their due share of pure air and sunlight, necessaries of life which the builders of the above mentioned bastilles do not seem to have thought of at all. This gathering of many small houses into a big tall one would give opportunity for what is also necessary to decent life, that is garden space round each block. This space once obtained, it would be a small matter to make the gardens far more beautiful, as they would be certainly far more cheerful, than the square gardens of the aristocratic quarters of the town now are; it would be natural to have cloisters or covered walking or playing places in them, besides such cheap ornaments as fountains and conduits. Inside the houses, besides such obvious conveniences as common laundries and kitchens, a very little arrangement would give the dwellers in them ample and airy public rooms in addition to their private ones; the top story of each block might well be utilised for such purposes, the great hall for dining in, and for social gathering, being the chief feature of it.”

In fact he made better housing one of the foundations of a more ecologically sound system. He went on in the same article: “The possession of space and pure air, with the determination not to live in the midst of ugliness, which relief from anxiety and overwork would give our mechanics, who are ingenious and ready witted still in spite of their slavery, would supply the stimulus for such town-houses being made proper dwellings for human beings, even in the transition period between the anarchy of to-day and the social order which is to come. A fair portion of the earth's surface, due leisure for the exercise of thought, ingenuity, and fancy; that is all we ask for making our dwellings healthful, pleasant, and beautiful.” (Salmon 1994 pp.51-52)

Along with changes in housing, he also foresaw wider changes in living arrangements – such as communal eating and other public services. In How We Live and How We Might Live, (30 November 1884), he told his audience: “As to what extent it may be necessary or desirable for people under social order to live in common, we may differ pretty much according to our tendencies towards social life. For my part I can't see why we should think it a hardship to eat with the people we work with; I am sure that as to many things, such as valuable books, pictures, and splendour of surroundings, we shall find it better to club our means together; and I must say that often when I have been sickened by the stupidity of the mean idiotic rabbit warrens that rich men build for themselves in Bayswater and elsewhere, I console myself with visions of the noble communal hall of the future, unsparing of materials, generous in worthy ornament, alive with the noblest thoughts of our time, and the past, embodied in the best art which a free and manly people could produce; such an abode of man as no private enterprise could come anywhere near for beauty and fitness, because only collective thought and collective life could cherish the aspirations which would give birth to its beauty, or have the skill and leisure to carry them out.” (Morton 1973 p.154-55)

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