Arguably the saviour of Britain's green spaces, Octavia Hill is a name forever associated with the National Trust, but who was she and how did she come to found one of the country's most famous heritage charities?
Who was Octavia Hill?
As a social reformer, Octavia Hill is famous for her pioneering work in housing the London poor of the late 19th century. Her ideas on the provision of quality social housing would prove influential in the 20th century. She believed strongly in the positive benefits of fresh air and open spaces, especially for those living in the city. In her housing schemes she provided children’s playgrounds and, as the great Victorian city of London grew, she fought against the development of open ground.
She once wrote: “The need of quiet, the need of air, the need of exercise, and … the sight of sky and of things growing seem human needs, common to all”.
When was Octavia Hill born?
Octavia Hill was born in 1838 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, Octavia grows up influenced by her mother’s progressive educational ideas, and her grandfather’s work in a hospital in London’s East End.
What is Octavia Hill most famous for?
Today she is celebrated, with Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, for setting up the National Trust (NT). Their aim was to protect the British countryside and open spaces, and they had the support of many illustrious Victorians from the worlds of art, science and politics, ranging from designer William Morris to suffragist Millicent Fawcett and scientist Thomas Henry Huxley.
She is also famous as a social reformer. In 1864, with help and investment from Ruskin she began buying neglected and decaying properties in London to do up and in doing so transformed their tenants’ lives.
Octavia Housing continues to provide homes for thousands of people in inner-city London
How did Octavia Hill found the National Trust?
After years working with people living in some of the worst conditions in the country, she came to the realisation that green sites were vital to people’s mental and physical wellbeing. She said the residents needed “a few acres where the hill top enables the Londoner to rise above the smoke, to feel a refreshing air for a little time and to see the sun setting in coloured glory which abounds so in the Earth God made”.
In 1875, advised by Robert Hunter of the Commons Preservation Society, Octavia begins protecting open spaces, big and small.
One of her biggest early victories was, with the support of conservationist Rev Hardwicke Rawnsley, Robert Hunter and John Ruskin, the prevention of slate railways being built in the unspoilt valleys of Newlands and Ennerdale. It is the first of his many successes to protect the Lake District.
After years working with people living in some of the worst conditions in the country, she came to the realisation that green sites were vital to people’s mental and physical wellbeing. She said the residents needed “a few acres where the hill top enables the Londoner to rise above the smoke, to feel a refreshing air for a little time and to see the sun setting in coloured glory which abounds so in the Earth God made”.
With many of the built-up, industrial conurbations treeless and devoid of any real access to rural surroundings, she campaigned for the graveyards to beopen to the public, for Parliament Hill to be protected from development and eventually set up the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest of Natural Beauty in January 1895. The National Trust's first place was five acres of clifftop at Dinas Oleu in Wales, bought in 1895.
What was the National Trust's first building?
The Trust acquired its first building, the 14th-century Alfriston Clergy House, in 1896.The National Trust now has more than 200 buildings and gardens of outstanding interest. In 1899 it acquired two acres of land in Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire – a century later, it cares for over 612,000 acres of countryside, plus more than 700 miles of coastline. All of this is held in perpetuity ‘for ever, for everyone’.
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When did Octavia Hill die?
Octavia died on August 13, 1912 after a lifetime improving the lives of the poor. Her campaigns created a wide range of public open spaces that we enjoy today.