Leisure and moral reform

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which the Victorian and Edwardian philosophy of rational recreation found expression in a variety of reformist campaigns, and suggests that its institutions (rather than the philosophy itself) have an important influence on contemporary leisure provision. Children and young people were seen as being easily corrupted in their spare time. The need to supervise and direct youth leisure led to approved recreational forms being inserted into school curricula, to scouting and other ‘churchy’ movements such as Sunday school being formed and to ‘respectable’ comics and children's literature being published. Adult leisure was also viewed as problematic by middle class reformers, especially in urban locations where few alternatives to drink, prostitution and gambling were seen to exist. Inspired by a wish to counter these threats and to diffuse respectable middle class forms of leisure down the social scale, voluntary and public organizations made extensive provision of sporting, c...