Colin Ward Presente!

Colin Ward (1924 - 2010)

I was sad to hear that Colin Ward passed away on February 11th. Colin Ward was an anarchist, architect, critic, educational officer, writer, editor, and much more besides. Not only was he, and his significant contribution, much respected within the Anarchist Movement, he also made a lasting contribution to the field of heritage. I suspect that many conservators and others who work in the Heritage Industry are unaware of the significance of his work to theirs, many may be interested to know that it was in fact Colin Ward who first coined the term ‘Heritage Industry’, later more famously used by Robert Hewison. Colin Ward first coined the term in a review of Patrick Wright’s ‘On Living in an Old Country’, that was published in the Times Educational Supplement, in 1985. Patrick Wright acknowledges the significance of this on numerous occasions within the 2009 edition of the same book.

Sadly I never got to meet Colin Ward, and so my personal connection to him is tangential, at best, both he and I worked at Freedom Press, and the Freedom Newspaper, albeit in totally different time periods. It was through the press that I first came into contact with his writings, I personally came to appreciated his understanding of the impact of class divisions in both rural and urban environments, when he discusses “the suffocating nimbyism of the countryside lobby, with its Range Rover culture” I feel he is speaking for all of us who grew up on the edges of the countryside, pushed out from our own spaces, particularly in terms of housing, by the rich. He also developed a very significant approach to urban education that encouraged children to develop an understanding of their own environment, he developed the concept of ‘streetwork’ (as an urban equivalent to fieldwork), he quite rightly felt this to be a better teaching tool for children to learn about their environment than trips to stately homes in the countryside. I believe this idea to be incredibly influential in understanding that the best method for understanding culture and cultural heritage is to comprehend our own first, the best possible starting place is ourselves and our environment.

Elsewhere in the field of housing and environmental design Colin Ward developed an approach I particularly found interesting, his analysis that current housing policy “assumes that people are helpless and inert consumers” was spot on, as was his analysis that the truth is that people both have the ability and a yearning “to shape their own environment”; to my mind this environment would be both contemporary and historic. His approach was not only useful analytically but also practically. In 1973 he stated that “the environment has to used by its inhabitants — all of them, including the vandals” and “it must be strong enough, and flexible enough, to contain the vandalism it is certainly going to receive.” This is good advice, yet today we still see buildings and environments, including outdoor sculptures, being constructed with materials that we can see from the outset will be susceptible to damage from the uses to which they will inevitably be put. However, it is worthy of note that increasingly we are seeing designers and architects of cultural institutions realizing this, and incorporating alternative uses into the design, one such progressive example is working with skateboarders to incorporate their uses into the building.

Colin Ward made innumerable contributions to a variety of fields, his contributions were recognized by many and in 2001 Anglia Ruskin University presented him with an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy. Amongst his many publications, he wrote the ‘anarchism’ edition of the OUP’s excellent ‘very short introduction’ series. Which is available online, and is a worthy introduction.

He will be missed by many, however, his many contributions will live on in all who discover them. Colin Ward Presente!

Colin Ward, Obituaries

* Five Leaves Blog. Colin Ward. Fives Leaves Blog. February 12, 2010.
* Stuart White. Colin Ward: Pioneer of Mutualism. Next Left Blog. Sunday, February 14, 2010.

Works by Colin Ward:

* Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2004.
* Cotters and Squatters: The Hidden History of Housing. 2004.
* Talking Anarchy (with David Goodway). 2003.
* Reflected in Water: a Crisis of Social Responsibility. 1997.
* Freedom to Go: After the Motor Age. 1991.
* Welcome, Thinner City: Urban Survival in the 1990s. 1989.
* The Allotment: Its Landscape and Culture. 1988.
* The Child in the Country. 1988.
* The Allotment: Its Landscape and Culture. 1988.
* Chartres: the Making of a Miracle. 1986.
* Goodnight Campers! The History of the British Holiday Camp, 1986.
* When We Build Again: Let’s Have Housing That Works! Pluto Press. London. 1985.
* ‘Blue Plagues and Dead Elms’, Times Educational Supplement, 11 October 1985.
* The Plotlanders, 1985. (co-authored with Dennis Hardy)
* The Child In The City. 1978.
* Housing: An Anarchist Approach. 1976.
* British School Buildings: Designs and Appraisals 1964-74. 1976.
* Tenants Take Over. 1974.
* Utopia. 1974.
* Vandalism. Architectural Press. London. 1973.
* Anarchy in Action. 1973.
* Streetwork: The Exploding School with journalist Anthony Fyson. 1973.
* Work. 1972.
* Anarchism as a Theory of Organization. 1966.
* The Anarchist Sociology of Federalism

Editor - Freedom. 1947 to 1960.
Founder and Editor – Anarchy (monthly journal). 1961 to 1970.

About Colin Ward:

* Chris Arnot. Cunning plots: Colin Ward, author and inveterate anarchist with a plan to put roofs over the rural poor. The Guardian, Wednesday 10 July 2002
* Patrick Wright. On Living In An Old Country: The National Past in Contemporary Britain. Oxford University Press. 2009.

Links:

* Colin Ward - Entry on Wikipedia.
* Colin Ward - Entry on R.A. Forums. (includes an impressive bibliography).
* Colin Ward – tag on LibCom.