News from Nowhere · Chapter
VII: Trafalgar Square explained
The narrator and Dick travel through a transformed London, passing gardens, orchards, and a banded-workshop.
What happens
The narrator and Dick travel through a transformed London, passing gardens, orchards, and a banded-workshop. They encounter a road-mending gang working joyfully, and later arrive at Trafalgar Square, now an orchard. The narrator recalls a violent historical protest there, which Dick and an old man find hard to believe. They discuss the National Gallery and the value of decorative crafts.
Themes in this chapter
Pleasure in Work
The road-mending gang works joyfully, laughing and talking, and Dick describes pick-work as 'good sport' and 'pleasant work'.
Critique of Industrial Capitalism
The narrator contrasts the peaceful, cooperative labor of the banded-workshops with the violent suppression of workers in the past, as recalled in the Trafalgar Square protest.
Art and Beauty in Everyday Life
The narrator questions the elaborate carving on his pipe, but Dick defends such 'toys' as a natural expression of craftsmanship when there is no scarcity of carvers.
Characters to notice
- Guest
The narrator observes the road-mending gang and reflects on past violence in Trafalgar Square.
- Dick
Dick explains the road-mending work, the history of Trafalgar Square, and the purpose of banded-workshops.
- Greylocks
The old horse that pulls the cart, mentioned as resuming his jog-trot after the road-mending delay.
- Old Hammond
The old man accompanying them, who questions the narrator's account of the 1887 protest and mentions a book called James' Social Democratic History.
Key passages
“Spell ho, mates! here are neighbours want to get past.”
The foreman calls a break so the travelers can pass.
The road-mending gang stops work to help the cart over the rough road.
“I don’t wonder at your finding the name ridiculous; but after all, it was nobody’s business to alter it, since the name of a dead folly doesn’t bite.”
Dick says the name 'Trafalgar Square' is silly but harmless to keep.
The square is now an orchard, but the old name remains.
“Why should people collect together to use power, when they can have it at the places where they live, or hard by, any two or three of them—or any one, for the matter of that?”
Dick explains that power is decentralized, so large factories are unnecessary.
Banded-workshops are for handwork requiring collaboration, not for power-driven machinery.