ABSTRACT
Octavia Hill (1838-1912) has been described as one the ‘great social reformers’ of the nineteenth century and ‘a name of immense prestige in the world of philanthropy’.2 Hill’s innovative methods in housing management resulted in her being identified in 1887 as one of three women who had significantly influenced Victorian Britain.3 She was ‘the first housing reformer to reach the unskilled working classes’,4 a leading member of the open spaces movement and a cofounder of the National Trust.5 Octavia Hill has been lauded as a heroine of the Victorian age who, released from the chains of domesticity, devoted herself to improving the lives of the poor and professionalized housing management.
