 | Port Sunlight |  |
PREFACE.
Everyone has heard of Port Sunlight, but it is doubtful whether
many have formed a definite or just estimate of this unique example
of industrial housing. The following pages are an attempt to record
its best features and to show how far the ideal which inspired it has
succeeded. To those who have not seen it Port Sunlight is perhaps
regarded as one of many other similar places. It is in reality something
very different from all others, and especially does it stand by
itself in the motive which founded it, which has carried it out, and
which continues to administrate it. The breadth of vision which
has made Port Sunlight possible is perhaps a greater matter than the
village itself. This must inevitably have its effect, but the author
ventures to predict that the artistic aspect of the place, which receives
some permanent record herein, may also obtain full recognition and
emulation as time goes on.
Those who look for finality in any human accomplishment are
doomed to disappointment, but the measure of our success will
surely be in proportion to the quality of our aims. The last and
best word we can say about the village of Port Sunlight is that the
aim of its founder has been based on the belief that sympathy for
the wants and well-being of our fellow-men may find a large expression
even in our business dealings.
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.
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
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. How fortunate the workpeople who are
enabled to live under such ideal conditions!
This little book is entirely due to the desire of the author himself
to illustrate the results of an enterprise which he has closely
followed from its inception. The combination of the practical and
the artistic has been achieved in Port Sunlight with outstanding
success, and in these pages it is believed that this is fairly shown,
though the building record is not yet by any means complete.
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.
My thanks are due to Mr. Herbert Batsford, the head of his
firm, who has not only superintended every detail connected with
the production but has added personal interest and advice due to
his special sympathy with the subject. To Mr. Alex. Paul, of the
Editorial and Social Department, Port Sunlight, I am indebted for
much kind help.
The photographic views are largely from the studio of
Mr. Geo. W. Davies, New Ferry.
| Port Sunlight | |