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Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English social reformer, particularly concerned with the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, specifically London, in the second half of the 19th century.

She was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and worked closely with her sister Miranda Hill (1836–1910), who founded the Kyrle Society. They were both daughters of Mr James Hill and granddaughters of Dr Thomas Southwood Smith, the pioneer of sanitary reform.

Hill was a moving force behind the development of social housing, including Council housing, and she also campaigned for the availability of open spaces for poor people, which resulted in the establishment of the National Trust. She was a member of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws in 1905. Both sisters worked for the preservation of open spaces.

She knew a great many notable Victorian artists and writers. To give but one example; at a party at George MacDonald's house John Ruskin formally started off a large dance with Octavia Hill as his dancing partner. It was Ruskin who funded her first ventures in housing reform.

She was influenced very much by the important theologian, anglican priest and social reformer Frederick Denison Maurice. His son Colonel Edmund Maurice edited her letters, which give a good insight into her life. He published Life of Octavia Hill as Told in her Letters (London, 1913). Her publications include: Homes of the London Poor (1875) and Our Common Land (1877).

In 1859, she created the Army Cadet Force, an organisation to prepare youths for entrance to the army.

A monument to Octavia Hill is to be found at a Surrey beauty spot, on the summit of a hill called Hydon Ball (now owned by the National Trust). Shortly after her death, the family erected a stone seat there, from which walkers can enjoy fine views over the Surrey countryside. There is also the Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum in Wisbech.

In 1995, to mark the centenary of the National Trust, a rose was named in her honour.

There is an Octavia Hill Society, as well as an Octavia Hill Association, a small, Philadelphia-based real estate company that was formerly devoted to providing affordable housing to low and middle-income city residents.

• Gillian Darley, ‘Hill, Octavia (1838–1912)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1] accessed 4 June 2006
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• Octavia Hill Association
• English pioneer in housing reform
• Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum
• Octavia Housing & Care