Little Edens

Part 3 of .

In September 1934, residents of the newly-built Florence Park estate went on rent strike. Hundreds of people withheld their rents in protest at the conditions they were expected to live in by developer of the estate Fred Moss.

Moss built 600 houses to meet the needs of the hundreds of men and women starting work at the Morris Motors and Pressed Steel factories in East Oxford. These workers had migrated from South Wales, Tyneside and the North, areas hit hard by the Great Depression, in search of employment. The families who moved onto the estate soon discovered, however, that their homes, built cheaply by unskilled labourers, were starting to fall apart.

After months of ignored complaints, the residents of the Florence Park estate embarked on a rent strike, during which they faced intimidation and evictions. Little Edens tells this story.

After a sell-out run at the Museum of Oxford in 2023, Little Edens returns to the museum as the final installment of , marking 90 years since the strike.

Little Edens will be performed on Saturday 7 December at 2.30pm and 5.30pm. Tickets are available online (booking fee applies) or at the Museum Shop. Doors open at 2pm and 5pm for the respective performances. Approximate running time is 1 hour 25 minutes, including interval. A paid bar will be available before the show and during the interval.

Little Edens is written by Peter Cann and directed by Tim Eyres.

Access at the Museum

There is step-free, level entry access to the Town Hall is via the entrance closest to Carfax (to the left of the main steps as you face the Town Hall). Inside the Museum, Museum Makers is accessible via a platform lift to the Galleries and then via stairs.

Accessible toilets are available in the Museum (close to Museum Makers) and in the Town Hall on the ground floor, before entering the Museum. Please contact the Museum team if you’d like to talk to a member of staff about your access requirements. Further access information can be found on our website: https://museumofoxford.org/plan-your-visit/access

Photo consent:

Please be aware that photographs will be taken at this event for use in marketing. If you (or a member of your group) would prefer not to be photographed, please let a member of staff know during the event.

Host or Publisher Museum of Oxford