T. Raffles Davison

“ The life of a village or town must be created of enduring materials and based on some sort of sound business principles. It is the very essence of the village of Port Sunlight that it is claimed to be a sound business enterprise. Though much more than half a million pounds of capital spent on land and buildings has been left out of count for interest, it is still maintained that all outlays have in the main been justified by sound business principles. That the well-being and comfort of their workpeople is a valuable business asset is no new belief with employers of labour. ”

“ The cottage reformer would of course say that the cottage tenant would be far happier and healthier as a rule without a parlour, for then he would have a fine living-room which might be free of all incumbrances and free of draughts. ”

“ To realise the value of Port Sunlight as an industrial village one has only to compare it with other enterprises. The architect can read clearly enough from it many lessons in design, a few of what to avoid perhaps, but many that he may emulate. The social reformer sees an object lesson in the value of a pleasant and well-planned community of houses in which individuality is left ample freedom of expression. The projector of industrial enterprise realises the mutual benefits of good and attractive housing. ”

“ The truest and highest form of enlightened self-interest requires that we pay the fullest regard to the interest and welfare of those around us, whose well-being we must bind up with our own, and with whom we must share our prosperity. ”

“ CARVED OAK AND DECORATIVE PLASTER WORK ON COTTAGE IN PARK ROAD SOUTH.
W. OWEN, Architect.
It is the aim which lies behind such words as these which is of real importance, and makes possible the creation of beautiful homes and pleasant surroundings. We may be quite sure that this is the one vital factor in all our efforts, and no excuse need be offered for the reiteration of this point in the pages of this book. We should all live for some sort of ideals, and in proportion as these are right and good, so shall we find the measure of our success. ”

“ It is very delightful to contemplate the results of an undertaking like Port Sunlight—a beneficent enterprise which no law could force from any public body or private employer, and which no mere compiler of accounts for capital and interest would dare to sanction. ”

“ Port Sunlight has been an object of attraction to visitors for years, and this is not only due to the interest and variety of its cottage houses, and as a model for town planners the world over, but to the whole-hearted endeavour to meet all the practical and social needs of everyday life which is expressed in its various public buildings. ”

“ It would be the merest affectation to leave out of these pages any mention of the founder, Sir William Hesketh Lever, Bart., one of the leaders of industrial enterprise in this country. Amongst the many things he has done for the benefit of his fellow-countrymen there is surely nothing we have more to thank him for than the homes which are the subject of this book. To provide employment for thousands and then to give them such homes to live in must be a good reward for a life’s work to the man with an ideal. ”

“ Thus the visitor who now for the first time goes to Port Sunlight and realises the extent and quality of the work done is naturally much impressed by the variety and interest which the whole village affords, whilst those who are in constant residence may not realise it so keenly. It is hardly possible that those who live in the many charming cottages which have sprung up in this country in recent years, or who have lived a long [Pg 9] time in some of the best of our old English cottages, can take that delight in their appearance which the detached observer feels. ”

“ It is quite certain that if the garden spaces at Port Sunlight were punctuated with decoratively placed evergreens, and inclosed by living borders of box or yew, the result would be both pleasing and long-lasting. The open spaces now secured should make for ever pleasant oases amongst the long lines of houses, and even if all the tree avenues had to go, there would still be left much to excite the envy of those who have to live in our dirty old towns. ”

“ The better class cottages must have parlours, and only those who cannot afford them will go without. Plaster walls seem to be almost always preferred to those lined with boarding, white-washed bricks, or any other healthy or artistic departure from the modern British type. Thus we find that the compact and economic plans in the village are what give the most universal satisfaction. ”

“ Whether the half-timber work is used for the whole building, or only partially in connection with the fine red sandstone of the district, or with bricks or flint-work, it has an undeniable and enduring charm, and we owe much of our [Pg 16] pleasure in the whole appearance of Port Sunlight to the liberal views of the founder, who did not permit his vision of a beautiful village to be obscured by the clouds of philistinism! You cannot, of course, pretend that such gables as those shown in our illustrations are necessary to cottage building. ”

“ The individual or community which has no ideal is to be pitied. For, whatever may happen, there is always a better chance for those who maintain a high ideal than for those who, without one, adventure themselves against the chances and difficulties that surround us. ”

“ The best conceived plans for the present time are not necessarily the best for the future, and an insistent look out for possible improvements is the only safeguard for the future even where the most careful design and thought have been devoted to the beginnings of such a successful enterprise as that which is here recorded. ”

“ The ideal was always kept in view, and if it ever disappears it will be only after the disappearance of the original founder himself! It is a pleasant task to gather together in this little book the evidence of belief that a more real partnership between capitalist and workpeople would work a lasting good. That good is not to be measured in a notation of gold, nor even amongst those who live and thrive under the immediate benefits of Port Sunlight. ”

“ WOOD STREET COTTAGES.
An evidence of the careful economic spirit which has guided the whole enterprise may be found in the plans of the buildings at Port Sunlight. There are here no freaks or features created simply for picturesque effect, nor any serious attempt to give the [Pg 26] occupants something they do not want. It will probably be a long time before any great reform in cottage planning can be maintained in face of the varying views of the tenants. Thus the rooms must be big enough, but they must not be so large as to cause needless work. ”

“ It is with some feeling of regret that more sketches have not been given showing examples of interesting ornamental detail which lift the quality of these cottage homes so much above the ordinary level of industrial homes. But the limits of the volume place an inevitable check on one’s desires. ”

“ We cannot live in comfort with others if we do not share our comforts with them. If we wish men to be honest towards ourselves, we must be honest with them. If we wish men to help us to achieve prosperity, they must feel assured that we will share that prosperity with them. ”

“ The stepped gables or the flamboyant dormers which vary the treatment are not unacceptable as variants. As to the use of oak framing with plaster panels—the familiar Old English style—no one can deny its charm or fail to wish there were even more of it. Nothing is so picturesque and nothing so cheerful of aspect as the black and white work which forms so frequent a feature in the earlier buildings erected. One only regrets that it is difficult to justify it from a strictly commercial point of view, especially if it is executed in a sound and substantial manner. ”

“ Not only as regards the results of growth in trees and shrubs, the development of gardens, and the mellowing influences of time and tone, but also in relation to all the amenities of social life, we must wait for those influences which can only come in a gradual process. ”

“ The ideal which prompted it is the real thing that matters, and though it may be maintained that the carrying out of it pays—and [Pg viii] pays well—we may still hold fast to the hope that both those who make such villages and those who live in them will ever cherish some beliefs which are above and beyond all that which is concerned with a mere monetary return. ”

“ In a progressive world, and especially in such a progressive part of it as Port Sunlight, one cannot hope to give a record which will for long represent existing facts. The arrangements which have been made for the benefit of the inhabitants of this village have necessarily been altered or modified. ”

“ Moreover, the sin of affectation creeps into all our buildings, and thus the cottage apes the little villa, the little villa apes the large one, the large one apes the mansion, and the mansion apes the palace. ”

“ This could be the only possible point of view which would give final satisfaction to the business man. It is maintained that no undertaking in the world which has been based on purely artistic desires and which has had no basis of practical value has been of any lasting value. The whole foundation of Port Sunlight is believed to consist of [Pg 10] practical values and sound business principles. ”

“ The illustration of the interior (see Pl. 33) is from a large drawing exhibited by the architect at the Royal Academy in 1916.
Our illustrations, in a general way, represent what may be taken to be the best examples of design in the village. They do not, of course, show all the best. In Pl. 28 we have a very good example of the quality of detail which lifts the work at Port Sunlight so far above the level of the ordinary speculative cottage building. Here we find carved oak beams and posts and brackets and barges, and an excellent piece of modelled plaster work in the gable. ”

“ It is only by comparing the conditions at Port Sunlight with those of other residential areas that the full measure of their value can be ascertained. In some respects the outsider is perhaps a better judge of the success of such a village than are the residents, who come to take a good deal for granted. ”

“ Nothing shows better the good qualities of an Old English half-timber building than such a setting. There is hardly anything in the village which comes back on one with such recurring charm as the row of five gables in the Park Road cottages shown in Pls. ”

“ In this way we get less value of contrasts, and lose something of that spirit of emulation which spurs the individual to special effort. Of one thing, however, there can be no doubt. The absence of the many dividing lines of fences between each cottage frontage produces a breadth of effect along the lines of [Pg 11] roadways which is in itself very pleasing. From the point of view of the town-planner who looks for the collective result this is, of course, very satisfactory.
DOUGLAS AND FORDHAM,
Architects.
14. SOME PARK ROAD HOUSES.
15. ”