ABSTRACT
An East End literary legend states that the People’s Palace, an institution for the education and rational recreation of the East End people, was inspired by Walter Besant’s 1882 novel All Sorts and Conditions of Men. The Palace, designed by Morrison’s former employer, the architect E.R. Robson, was built at Mile End in 1887 with funds from the Beaumont Trustees and the Drapers’ Company. I discuss Morrison’s equivocal relationship to the institution where, as clerk of the Beaumont Trustees and subeditor under Besant at The Palace Journal in 1889, he developed his literary interests and talents. Despite the Journal’s admiration for ‘men who have risen’, at this time Morrison began to disguise his origins. As he became more in demand as a journalist, he took opportunities to leave the East End. I examine Morrison’s eclectic contributions to the periodicals of the day and the development of his style under the influences of Besant, Newnes and W.E. Henley.
