Erection date: /5/1962
"Guests and neighbours, on the site of this guest-hall once stood the lecture-room of the Hammersmith Socialists. Drink a glass to the memory! May 1962".
"News from nowhere". William Morris.
The inscription is a quote from William Morris's 1890 "News from Nowhere", in which the narrator, William Guest, the previous day having attended a Socialist meeting, awakes in a future society and, while having breakfast, spots a plaque bearing exactly these words. The book was written in this house which was also, indeed, where the Hammersmith Socialists held their meetings. A very unusual, self-referential plaque.
Site: Ronalds, Socialists, MacDonald and Morris (4 memorials)
W6, Upper Mall, 26, Kelmscott House
The small building was built as the coach-house to number 26. The Ronalds and Hammersmith Socialists plaques are on the small building (which is also the Kelmscott House Museum and HQ of the William Morris Society). The MacDonald and Morris plaques on the main building are covered in foliage, so our close-up photographs were taken separately in winter.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
