Colin Ward

For other people named Colin Ward, see Colin Ward (disambiguation).

See also Anarchism in England.

Colin Ward
Ward in his workroom, 2003
Born	(1924-08-14)14 August 1924 Wanstead, Essex, England
Died	11 February 2010(2010-02-11) (aged 85)
Education	Ilford County High School Garnett College
Occupations	Writer Editor
Notable work	Anarchy in Action (1973)
Movement	Anarchism
Spouse	Harriet Unwin ​ (m. 1966)​
Partner	Vera Balfour (died 1963)

Colin Ward (14 August 1924 – 11 February 2010) was a British anarchist author and editor. He has been called "one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of the past half century, and a pioneering social historian."

Early life

Ward was born in Wanstead, Essex, England, to Arnold and Ruby Ward (née West). Arnold was a teacher and Ruby a former clerical worker. Both parents were active Labour Party supporters. Ward attended Ilford County High School, Essex leaving school aged 15 with no qualifications, although he later obtained two A levels by taking evening classes. His first job was as a clerk for a builder who was fraudulently erecting air-raid shelters. He then worked in the office of the Borough Engineer of Ilford Borough, where he encountered 'the inequitable treatment of council-house tenants'. From there he began working for the architect Sidney Caulfield{{efn|Ward in Ward & Goodway 2014, p. 2, whose work Ward described as having 'dwindled to temporary repairs to factories in the East End of London'.

In 1942, aged 18, Ward was conscripted into the army as a sapper, going on to work as a draughtsman in the Royal Engineers. In the following year he was based in Glasgow in the Army School of Hygiene.

Later life

Ward was demobbed from the army in 1946, when he returned to working for Sidney Caulfield and began contributing to Freedom Press. From 1952 to 1961, he worked as an architect's assistant for Shepheard and Epstein. From 1961 Ward worked for two years as director of research for the architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. In 1964 he undertook teacher training at the former Garnett College in Roehampton southwest London, where he met his future wife, Harriet Unwin. He subsequently began teaching at Wandsworth Technical College, in South London. In 1971, Ward became the Education Officer for the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA). In 1979 he stopped working for the TCPA to become a full-time writer.{{efn|Ward in Ward & Goodway 2014, p. 76 His first two books were Violence (1970) and Work (1972). He wrote widely on education, architecture and town planning. His most influential book was The Child in the City (1978), about children's street culture. From 1995 to 1996, he was Centennial Professor of Housing and Social Policy at the London School of Economics. In 2001, he was made an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy at Anglia Ruskin University.

Ward's engagement with anarchism

Ward initially engaged with anarchism in 1943, when he was in serving in the army in Glasgow. Goodway (1963) observed that he 'received as "a real education" there: on account of the eye-catching deprivation, his use of the Mitchell Library and, as the only British city ever to have had a significant anarchist movement (in contrast to London's Continental exiles and Jewish immigrants), the dazzling anarchist orators on Glasgow Green with their Sunday-night meetings in a room above the Hangman's Rest in Wilson Street and bookshop in George Street.' Ward began attending Glasgow Anarchist Group events. Shantz and Williams (2013) documented that Ward met Eddie Shaw, Jimmie Dick and Frank Leech. They also documented that Leech encouraged Ward 'to put together some articles for the London publication War Commentary - For Anarchism — published by Marie Louise Bernari of the Freedom Press Group ...'. Ward responded with his article Allied military government{{efn|Ward in Ward & Goodway 2014, p. 2 which was published under his own name in the mid-December 1943 issue of War Commentary, which was followed by articles which were also published under his own name in the following January, February and March. In April 1945 Ward was called as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of the paper's editors, John Hewetson, Vernon Richards and Philip Sansom. Shortly after the trial he was transferred to Orkney.

In 1947 Ward began editing the anarchist newspaper Freedom, the successor of War Commentary, and remained an editor of Freedom until 1960. In 1961 he founded the monthly anarchist journal Anarchy, which he edited from 1961 to 1970.

Ward on anarchism

Ward's philosophy aimed at removing authoritarian forms of social organisation and replacing them with self-managed, non-hierarchical forms. This is based upon the principle that, as Ward put it, "in small face-to-face groups, the bureaucratising and hierarchical tendencies inherent in organisations have least opportunity to develop".

Anarchism for Ward was "a description of a mode of human organization, rooted in the experience of everyday life, which operates side by side with, and in spite of, the dominant authoritarian trends of our society". In contrast to many anarchist philosophers and activists, Ward held that "anarchism in all its guises is an assertion of human dignity and responsibility. It is not a programme for political change but an act of social self-determination."

Ward on education

In the chapter Schools No Longer in his 2018 (originally 1973) book Anarchy in Action, Ward discussed the genealogy of education and schooling, in particular the writings of Everett Reimer and Ivan Illich, and the beliefs of anarchist educator Paul Goodman. Many of Ward's writings in the 1970s, in particular Streetwork: The Exploding School (1973, with Anthony Fyson), focused on learning practices and spaces outside of the school building. In introducing Streetwork, Ward wrote, "[this] is a book about ideas: ideas of the environment as the educational resource, ideas of the enquiring school, the school without walls...”. In the same year, Ward contributed to the chapter The Role of the State to Education Without Schools (edited by Peter Buckman). He argued that "one significant role of the state in the national education systems of the world is to perpetuate social and economic injustice."

In The Child in the City (1978), and later The Child in the Country (1988), Ward "examined the everyday spaces of young people’s lives and how they can negotiate and re-articulate the various environments they inhabit. In his earlier text, the more famous of the two, Colin Ward explores the creativity and uniqueness of children and how they cultivate 'the art of making the city work'. He argued that through play, appropriation and imagination, children can counter adult-based intentions and interpretations of the built environment. His later text, The Child in the Country, inspired a number of social scientists, notably geographer Chris Philo (1992) , to call for more attention to be paid to young people as a 'hidden' and marginalised group in society".

Ward on housing

Main article: Anarchist architecture

In his 1976 book Housing: An Anarchist Approach, Ward criticized slum clearances, the municipalization programmes created by the Labour Party and the private landlord housing model. He advocated for an anarchist model of housing, citing squatting and housing co-operatives from Third World countries as a model for the anarchist movement.

Publications

Articles

A very small sample of the many articles that Ward had published is listed below. Kinross (2012) may be consulted for a full listing of the ones that were published in Anarchy.

1960s

• 1961 "Where the shoe pinches" (PDF). Anarchy (4): 97-116.
• 1961 (As C.W.) "Are we in favour of penal reform?". Anarchy. 9: 257-263.
• 1962 "The state and society". Anarchy. 14: 115-119.
• 1964 "Workers' control and the collective contract". Anarchy. 40: 180-184.
• 1965 (As C.W.) "Gustav Landauer". Anarchy. 54: 244-252.
• 1966 (As C.W.) "Peckham recollected". Anarchy. 60: 52-56.
• 1967 (As C.W.) "Do-it-yourself-anarchism 1: The anarchist idea". Anarchy. 77: 193-197.
• 1968 "Tenants take over a new strategy for council tenants". Anarchy. 83: 1-19.

1970s

• 1970 "Instant anarchy: 3 Revolutionary moment". Anarchy. 116: 302-308.
• 1972 "The plotlanders". Oral History Journal. 13 (2): 57-70.

1980s

• 1987 "The path not taken" (PDF). The Raven. 1 (3): 195-200.

Books

1970s

• 1973 (With Anthony Fyson) Streetwork The exploding school. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1973. ISBN 0 7100 7683 5.
• 1973 (As editor) Vandalism. London: The Architectural Press. 1973. ISBN 0 85139 700 X.
• 1974 (With Colin Smithson) Utopia. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Education. 1974. ISBN 0140812369.
• 1974 Tenants take over. London: The Architectural Press. ISBN 0 85139 630 5.
• 1975 (As editor) Kropotkin, Peter. Fields, factories and workshops tomorrow. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
• 1976 (As editor) British school buildings Design and appraisals 1964-74. London: The Architectural Press. ISBN 0 85139 085 4.
• 1978 The child in the city. London: The Architectural Press. ISBN 0 85139 118 4.

1980s

• 1982 (With Eileen Adams) Art and the built environment. Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex: Longman Group. ISBN 0 582 36195 8.
• 1984 Housing is theft, Housing is freedom. Nottingham: Five Leave Publications. ISBN 0907123058.
• 1985 (With Dennis Hardy) "The Plotlanders". Oral History. 13 (2): 57-70.
• 1985 When we build again Let's have housing that works. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0745300227.
• 1986 (With Dennis Hardy) Goodnight campers! The history of the British holiday camp. London: Mansell Publishing. ISBN 0-7201-1835-2.
• 1986 Chartres The making of a miracle. London: The Folio Society.
• 1987 (As editor) A decade of Anarchy (1961-1970. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0900384379.
• 1989 Welcome thinner city Urban survival in the 1990s. London: Bedford Square Press. ISBN 0-7199-1252-0.
• 1989 (With Ruth Rendell) Undermining the central line. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0701135980.

1990s

• 1990 Talking houses Ten lectures. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0900384557.
• 1990 (Originally 1988) The child in the country. London: Hale. ISBN 0719912903.</ref>
• 1991 (With Tim Ward) Images of childhood in old postcards. Far Thrupp, Gloucestshire: Alan Sutton. ISBN 0-86299-865-4.
• 1991 Influences Voices of creative dissent. Hartland, Bideford, Devon: Green Books. ISBN 1-870098-43-9.
• 1991 Freedom to Go: after the motor age. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0 900384 61 1.
• 1993 New Town Home Town. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. ISBN 0903319624.
• 1995 Talking schools. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0 900384 81 6.
• 1997 Stamps: Designs For Anarchist Postage Stamps (illustrated by Clifford Harper)
• 1997 Havens and springboards (PDF). London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. ISBN 0 903319 82 9.
• 1997 Reflected in water: A crisis of social responsibility. London: Cassell. ISBN 0304335681.
• 1998 (With Peter Hall) Sociable cities The legacy of Ebenezer Howard. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-98505-8.

2000s

• 2000 (Originally 1996) Social policy An anarchist response. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 9780900384981.
• 2002 Cotters and squatters Housing's hidden history (PDF). Nottingham: Five Leaves. ISBN 0907123198.
• 2003 (With David Goodway) Talking anarchy. Nottingham: PM Press. ISBN 978-1-60486-812-8.
• 2004 Anarchism A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280477-4.
• 2004 (With Dennis Hardy) Arcadia for all. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 0 907123 59 7.

2010s

• 2011 (With Damian F. White and Chris Wilbert) Autonomy, solidarity, possibility The Colin Ward reader. Edinburgh: AK. ISBN 9781849350204.
• 2012 Talking green. Nottingham: Five Leaves. ISBN 9781907869518.

2020s

• 2022 (Originally 1996) Talking to architects. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 978-1-904491-43-9.
• 2023 (originally 1988) (With David Crouch) The allotment Its landscape and culture (New ed.). Bridport: Little Toller Books. ISBN 9781915068231.

References

• Goodway, David (2012) [originally 2006]. Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow : Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward. Oakland, CA: PM Press. ISBN 978-1-60486-221-8.
• Honeywell, Carissa (2015). "Anarchism and the British Warfare State: The Prosecution of the War Commentary Anarchists, 1945". International Review of Social History. 60 (2): 257–284. doi:10.1017/S0020859015000188. ISSN 0020-8590. JSTOR 26394787. S2CID 151669269.
• Jacobs, Keith (2025). "The writings of Colin Ward and the legacy of anarchism for housing studies". Housing Studies. 40 (6): 1477-1494.
• Kinross, Robin (2012). "An index to Anarchy". In Poyner, Daniel (ed.). Autonomy the cover designs of Anarchy 1961-1970. London: Hyphen Press. ISBN 978-0-907259-46-6.
• Kowaluk, Lucia (2019). "On housing". In Hawley, Joshua; Roussopoulos, Dimitrios (eds.). Villages in cities. Montréal, QC, Canada: Black Rose Books. ISBN 978-1-55164-688-6.
• Philo, Chris (1992). "Neglected rural geographies" (PDF). Journal of Rural Studies. 8 (2): 193-207.
• Scott-Brown, Sophie (2023). Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchy. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003100409. ISBN 978-0-367-56753-8. S2CID 248956242.
• Shantz, Jeff; Williams, Dana M. (2013). Anarchy and society. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-21496-5.
• Ward, Colin (1943). "Allied military government" (PDF). Freedom. 5 (4): 11-12.
• —— (1966a). "Anarchism as a theory of organization" (PDF). Anarchy. 6 (4): 97–109. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
• —— (1966b). "The organization of anarchy (Anarchism as a theory of organization)". In Krimerman, Leonard I.; Perry, Lewis (eds.). Patterns of anarchy. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books.
• —— (1970). Violence (Connexions). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 0140800883.
• —— (1972). Connections: Work. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140806369.
• —— (1973). "The Role of the State". Education without schools. London: Souvenir Press. ISBN 0 285 64721 0. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
• —— (1976). Housing: An Anarchist Approach. London: Freedom Press. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
• —— (1983) [originally 1976]. Housing An anarchist approach (Second ed.). London: Freedom Press.
• Ward, Colin; Goodway, David (2014) [originally 2003]. Talking anarchy. Oakland, CA: PM Press. ISBN 978-1-60486-812-8.
• Ward, Colin (2018). Anarchy in action (Second ed.). Oakland, CA: PM Press. ISBN 9781-62963-238-4.
• Ward, Harriet (2003). A man of small importance My father Griffen Barry. Debenham: Dormouse Books. ISBN 0954604601.
• Ward, Harriet (2013). "Meeting Colin in the sixties". In Bradshaw, Ross; Ward, Ben; Ward, Harriet; Worpole, Ken (eds.). Remembering Colin Ward (1924-2010). Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 978-1-907869-97-6.

Further reading

• Bradshaw, Ross; Ward, Ben; Ward, Harriet; Worpole, Ken, eds. (2011). Remembering Colin Ward: 1924-2010. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 978-1-907869-28-0. OCLC 707825526.
• Crouch, David (2017). "Lived Spaces of Anarchy: Colin Ward's Social Anarchy in Action". In Ferretti, Federico; Torre, Gerónimo Barrera de la; Ince, Anthony; Toro, Francisco (eds.). Historical Geographies of Anarchism: Early Critical Geographers and Present-Day Scientific Challenges. Routledge. pp. 153–164. ISBN 978-1-315-30753-4.
• Goodway, David (1999). "The Anarchism of Colin Ward". In Worpole, Ken (ed.). Richer Futures: Fashioning a New Politics. London: Earthscan. ISBN 1 85383 539 0.
• —— (2011). "Colin Ward and the New Left". Anarchist Studies. 19 (2): 42–56. ISSN 0967-3393.
• Honeywell, Carissa (2011). A British Anarchist Tradition: Herbert Read, Alex Comfort and Colin Ward. New York, NY: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-4411-9883-9. OCLC 728680871.
• —— (2011). "Colin Ward Anarchism and social policy". Anarchist Studies. 19 (2): 69-83.
• Kelly, Andrew, ed. (2024). Mutual Aid, Everyday Anarchy: Essays on Colin Ward. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 978-1-91-543422-7.
• Levy, Carl (2011). "Introduction: Colin Ward (1924-2010)". Anarchist Studies. 19 (2): 7–16. ISSN 0967-3393.
• Levy, Carl, ed. (2014). Colin Ward: Life, Times and Thought. London: Lawrence & Wishart. ISBN 978-1-909831-68-1. OCLC 899261368.
• Paola, Pietro Di (2011). "'The man who knows his village' Colin Ward and Freedom Press". Anarchist Studies. 19 (2): 22–41. ISSN 0967-3393.
• Price, Wayne (2015). "Colin Ward's Anarchism". Anarcho-Syndicalist Review. 63.
• Ward, Colin (2011). Wilbert, Chris; White, Damian F. (eds.). Autonomy, Solidarity, Possibility: The Colin Ward Reader. Oakland, CA: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-84935-020-4. OCLC 601121195.
• White, Stuart (2007). "Making anarchism respectable? The social philosophy of Colin Ward". Journal of Political Ideologies. 12 (1): 11–28. ISSN 1356-9317. S2CID 145331077.
• —— (2011). "Social anarchism, lifestyle anarchism, and the anarchism of Colin Ward". Anarchist Studies. 19 (2): 92–104. ISSN 0967-3393.
• Whitehead, Andrew (2023). "An Anarchist for the Outside World". History Workshop Journal. 95 (1): 222–224. ISSN 1477-4569.
• Wilson, Matthew (2024). "Colin Ward An ambiguous legacy". Anarchist Studies. 32 (2): 7-14. ISSN 2633-8270. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
• Worpole, Ken, ed. (1999). Richer Futures: Fashioning a New Politics. London: Earthscan. ISBN 1-85383-539-0. OCLC 42858331.

External links

• Colin Ward archive at RevoltLib
• Colin Ward, Anarchism as a Theory of Organization (1966)
• Colin Ward, Harmony through Complexity (1973)
• Daily Telegraph obituary, 29 March 2010
• Guardian obituary, 22 February 2010
• The Good Life of a Gentle Anarchist, Boyd Tonkin, The Independent, 19 February 2010
• Mills, S. (2010) 'Colin Ward: The ‘Gentle’ Anarchist and Informal Education’ at the encyclopaedia of informal education.
• Colin Ward, Pioneer of Mutualism
• Obituary at Outrospection.org Archived 21 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• Autonomy, Solidarity, Possibility: The Colin Ward Reader
• Center for a Stateless Society on Ward
• Ward and Five Leaves publishers
• Ward and the Essex plotlanders, The Guardian, 7 March 2010
• Inveterate anarchist with a plan to put roofs over the rural poor, The Guardian, 10 July 2002
• Colin Ward interview by David Goodway
• A friendly market-anarchist view of Colin Ward, by an editor of Reason, 'the magazine of free minds and free markets'
• Anarchy in the UK? It could be the best government we’ve had, Boyd Tonkin, The Independent, 03 April 2015
• Personally Speaking: Colin Ward in Conversation with Roger Deakin (video interview)