Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK traces the homes, collectives and social movements that ‘challenged mainstream ideas of class, gender, politics and belonging‘
Tom Hunter
William Morris Gallery will open a major new exhibition on Saturday 3rd October exploring how artists, activists and communities have reimagined domestic life in Britain over the past 200 years.
Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK traces the homes, collectives and social movements that challenged mainstream ideas of class, gender, politics and belonging — and the spaces they created to live differently.
Bringing together painting, photography, sound, archival material and domestic objects, the exhibition highlights individuals and groups who defied convention and used their homes as sites of experimentation. It considers how money and class shaped access to these environments, and how those excluded from traditional routes to power forged alternative ways of living.
Developed with Tŷ Pawb in Wrexham, Blackwell – The Arts & Crafts house in Bowness‑on‑Windermere and Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, Earthly Paradise is part of Art Fund’s £5.36m Going Places programme, which supports touring exhibitions across the UK.
Spanning two centuries, the show features spaces linked to William Morris’s Red House, Charleston, Benton End, Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage and Dial House — the anarcho‑pacifist open home founded by Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher of Crass. Early sections explore figures such as the Ladies of Llangollen, C R Ashbee, Oscar Wilde, Ethel Mairet and Lee Miller, examining how domestic life became a site for questioning marriage, class, gender and spirituality.
A second section moves from the post‑war period to the present, highlighting feminist and anti‑racist housing activism through work by Matrix, Leeds Animation Workshop, Castlemilk Womanhouse, Nubia Way and Danièle Lamarche.
Photography by Martin Parr, Sunil Gupta and Smiler reflects shifting attitudes to home ownership after the 1980 Right to Buy scheme, while new work by Abel Holsborough and David Spero considers the growing precarity of housing today.
Following its presentation at William Morris Gallery (3 October 2026 to 28 March 2027), Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK will tour to Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham (April – September 2027), Blackwell – The Arts & Crafts house, Bowness-on-Windermere (October 2027 to February 2028) and Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh (March to September 2028).
Hadrian Garrard, William Morris Gallery’s director said, “William Morris was in an open marriage and wanted to completely blur the lines between domestic life and making and experiencing art.
“He was friends with gay men and women, anarchists and revolutionaries – and he lived radically in the ways that we see many other artists live through history. This show looks at how the home has acted as a site for challenging societal norms – what that has meant through history and what the possibilities are for this in today’s world.”
Jenny Waldman, Art Fund’s director said, “This inspiring exhibition, bringing to life powerful stories of how artists shaped the world around them, will be seen across the country thanks to Going Places. This new programme sees museums working together to share their collections and connect with communities in new ways.
“We’re hugely grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Julia Rausing Trust for supporting this ambitious programme and we hope people will enjoy this exhibition at the William Morris Gallery and then as it travels to Wrexham, Windermere and Edinburgh.”
Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK will run from 3rd October 2026 until 28th March 2027
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