John Morton MBE (1919 – 2017) was co-founder of Lupton Morton, a visionary manufacturer of flat-pack modern furniture in the 1950s and 60s best known for their Campus furniture range.

Morton began studies at the Architectural Association in London after the Second World War and it was here that he met Lupton. During a 1947 trip to Scandinavia, Morton was struck by the sophistication of modern furniture that was available and affordable to everyone. After his studies, he assisted the architects Robert Goodden and RD Russell on the Lion and Unicorn Pavilion for the Festival of Britain, an ambitious national exhibition designed to celebrate and promote British science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts in the wake of the Second World War.

In the early 1960s, universities were rapidly expanding and Morton grasped their potential as a market. He set up the Living and Learning exhibition, touring towns where new universities were planned and it was from this that Campus furniture was born. By 1967, 18 universities had purchased Campus’ flat pack self-assembly furniture.

Campus used beech frames, sometimes sprayed dark green, red or white and assembled with Allen keys. All of the furniture came in a range of tactile fabrics in fashionable 60s colours such, jade green, burnt orange, and rust.

In 1969 the company was acquired by Ryman Conran, the brief partnership of Ryman stationery and Terence Conran and the Campus range was on sale at Habitat until the late 70s. Meanwhile, Morton collaborated with the architect David Rock and office space expert John Townsend to convert an empty factory into around 70 individual workspaces for craftspeople, architects and designers, who shared administrative staff, facilities and costs. This visionary development set the standard for many shared workspaces, and Barley Mow continues today.