Arts & Crafts

William Morris was a utopian socialist who deplored the conditions under which capitalism forced working people to labour. He thought that an uprising of the working class and the overthrow of the system that created such oppression was inevitable. He was also anti-imperialist and disliked the monarchy - he turned down the position of poet laureate. I suppose he would have been disappointed with the way things have worked out, as well as perhaps amused by some of the homes his designs have been used in

Some words attributed to Morris (though I've not succeeded in finding the original source) are used as a 'creed' by a young-people's organisation called Woodcraft Folk, with which our family has been much involved. Woodcraft are a sometimes anarchic alternative version of scouts and guides, who eschew alleigance to gods, kings and pretty much any kind of hierarchical leadership. At its best, it provides a safe space for young people to develop self-confidence, self-reliance, critical thought and an international perspective. A member suggested online that if we were thinking about pledges today, we might consider this one, which Woodies speak at every meeting, and refer to as "the envoy"

'And this shall be for a bond between us: that we are of one blood you and I; that we have cried peace to all and claimed fellowship with every living thing; that we hate war and sloth and greed, and love fellowship, and that we shall go singing to the fashioning of a new world.' - William Morris.

I wonder what William would have made of this design. I think he would have admired the workmanship and the symmetry, the nod to mythology. This is wall decoration on the first floor of a Birmingham clothes shop (with clothes-shop lighting, unfortunately), one of a repeating pattern that extends across the whole wall. It was discovered when the building was being renovated, and its origins are a bit of a mystery

The building was once one of a chain of coffee houses in England, Wales and even Paris, called 'Kardomah'. They existed from the 1900s to the 1960s. Just one is still in business, in Swansea - Morris Buildings, funnily enough - proud of its historic art deco mosaic decoration

Between the 30s and the 50s the Birmingham Kardomah was frequented by a group of Surrealist artists, who considered themselves more authentic inheritors of Parisian spirit of the movement than anything happening in London - liberty, equality and fraternity included, I guess