Leisure became an established facet of social life in late Victorian Britain, raising questions of what leisure was for and how it could be best used. This chapter aims to answer these questions through an exploration of the organisation, consumption and theorisation of leisure from the late nineteenth century to the First World War. During this period a new and progressive welfare politics of leisure, influenced by the philosophy of Plato and especially Aristotle, laid the foundations for the leisure policy of the welfare state. Aided by Thomas Hill Green’s social idealist philosophy and the concept of positive freedom, liberal social policy linked the idea of leisure to community and social work. Following an emerging interest in social ethics and a rise of ethical societies in both Britain and America, leisure became debated in ethical terms, creating transatlantic debate and promoting the formation of new social institutions concerned with community and leisure.