original drawing by Anne Sassoon

Social reformer.

3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912

 ‘We all want quiet. We all want beauty … we all need space. Unless we have it, we cannot reach that sense of quiet in which whispers of better things come to us gently.’

Education

Home schooled by her mother Caroline Southwood Hill. 

Trained in glass-painting and started work aged 14. Employed as copyist for John Ruskin.

Some Key Achievements and Interests

Set up a system for renting affordable housing supporting tenants becoming responsible for 3,000 tenancies around London by 1874. Her aim was to ‘make lives noble, homes happy and family life good.’

Started training female ‘social workers’ to visit tenants in their homes to collect rent and support communities.

Campaigned for the use of smokeless fuel in London and green spaces for fresh air and recreation. With her sister, Miranda, set up the Kryle Society in 1877.

Battled to save Hampstead Heath from development and the purchase of Parliament Hill Fields for the benefit of Londoners.

1869 Led the Charity Organisation Society London branch with Helen Bosanquet.  

1895 With Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley set up the National Trust.

Issues 

Hill was against state action for welfare believing in the importance of individual responsibility.
She believed men and women have ‘different gifts’ and ‘different spheres’ opposing parliamentary votes for women but supporting women’s political involvement at local level.

These views led her into conflict with those who were arguing otherwise.

Connection to Bloomsbury

Lived and worked at the Ladies’ Guild based at 8 Russell Place and later in Devonshire Street. After the Guild’s closure lived for a time in Francis Street, Bloomsbury.

Was secretary of the women’s classes at Working Men’s College in Great Ormond Street where she taught arithmetic.  Helped set up the Working Women’s College with Elizabeth Malleson.

Female networks

Barbara Leigh Smith, Elizabeth Malleson, Helen Bosanquet.

Writing/Publications include:

1883 The Homes of the London Poor.

Further reading:

Darley, Gillian;  Octavia Hill, Social Reformer and Founder of the National Trust, Francis Boutle Publishing 2010

Octavia Hill: Her Life & Legacy, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/octavia-hill-her-life-and-legacy