Abstract
Voluntary action in leisure in inter-war Britain was shaped by three principal forces. The most immediate and pressing was the need for social and cultural reconstruction after the First World War. The widespread demand for and expectation of a better post-war society stimulated interest in the potential contribution of leisure to this in terms of its more democratic distribution and of community-building. However the optimism of the early phase of social reconstruction was undermined by a series of economic crises that led to the mass unemployment of the 1930s and the ‘enforced leisure’ of the unemployed. The absence of work raised difficult questions about the meaning of leisure, fuelling fears of alienation and community breakdown. In areas of high unemployment voluntary action became not so much a question of deploying leisure to community reconstruction but of maintaining community cohesion to prevent the unemployed becoming a separated community. However, in the more prosperous regions of the midlands and the south, leisure opportunities expanded as living standards improved. The third force was the changing nature of leisure itself as new forms, notably the cinema, wireless and greyhound racing, gained widespread popularity. With the founding of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1927 drama and both light and classical music became increasingly available. The popularity of spectator sport also grew, providing an affordable leisure interest for everyone and especially working-class people.