Everyday Eclecticism: William Morris and the Suburban Picturesque

Abstract

Observes that the London garden suburb of Bedford Park, established in 1875, represented the best effort of architects and designers to live up to the ideals of the Aesthetic Movement. In most contemporary accounts, visitors remark on the picturesqueness, variety, and novelty of the Queen Anne architecture, in contrast to the monotony found in the ordinary middle-class housing estates. Examines the use Morris makes of his visit to the suburb in 1879, claiming his critique highlights the historical dilemma provoked by the Queen Anne style. Believes Morris’ revision of the idea of the picturesque and the writing of his utopian News from Nowhere emerge in dialogue with the aesthetic and communitarian principles of Bedford Park. Concludes the picturesque eclecticism of Bedford Park remains a persuasive image of an alternative to twentieth-century domestic architecture, a failure of vision more easily explained by Morris’ socialist critique of the picturesque aesthetic.