Communal Gallery
Available as Framed Photos, Canvas Prints, Wall Art and Gift Items
Choose from 67 pictures in our Communal collection for your Wall Art or Photo Gift. Popular choices include Framed Photos, Canvas Prints, Posters and Jigsaw Puzzles. All professionally made for quick delivery.

Scene inside the first British Restaurant, one of a number of communal restaurants
Scene inside the first British Restaurant, one of a number of communal restaurants during the Second World War providing a cooked meal, with dessert and a cup of tea, for around the cost of 1s.2d. While operated on a canteen basis, meals were eaten at a table and allowed people, including war workers and those who had bombed out of their homes or might have difficulty cooking or making a packed lunch at home, a nutritious and affordable meal, which could be eaten in addition to wartime rations. Date: 1946
© Mary Evans Picture Library

Communal Kitchens, WWI by Will Owen
Cartoon by Will Owen, a humorous comment on the rise of the communal kitchen, introduced during the First World War as a way of providing war workers and the poor with nourishing meals, produced in the most efficient and economical way possible. This cartoon appeared after Alderman C. F. Spencer, Director of National Kitchens outlined a proposal for the establishments where distribution could potentially be via tramways, motor or gas-bag buses. He also mentioned how hanging baskets could be used to decorate the kitchens, music from gramophones or electric pianos could pass the time while people were waiting to be served and public baths might be used for washing dish cloths! Owen has done his best to visualise this Utopia with tongue firmly in cheek.
1918
© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

The Albergo Popolare in Milan
Milan's Albergo Popolare, opened in 1901, was modelled on London's Rowton Houses and provided cheap accommodation for working men. The establishment contained 530 beds, each in its own private cubicle, plus communal washing, dining and recreational facilities. Date: Date unknown
© Mary Evans/Peter Higginbotham Collection
1901, 530, Accommodation, Albergo, Beds, Cheap, Communal, Contained, Cubicle, Dining, Establishment, Facilities, Historical, History, Houses, Men, Modelled, Opened, Popolare, Private, Provided, Recreational, Rowton, Washing, Working