1. 18 July 2008 | Inside Housing | 29
170yearsofinfluence
1838
Octavia Hill is born in Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire.
1864
Hill’s first housing management
‘experiment’wasthreeleasedproperties
in Marylebone, London, financed by
social critic John Ruskin. This notorious
Victorian slum was known as ‘little hell’
by locals.
1875
Archives suggest that Hill was
responsible for at least 3,000 tenants.
1890
Introduction of the Housing and Working
Classes Act 1890.
1895
Formation of the National Trust of which
Hill was a founding member.
1912
Octavia Hill dies.
1916
Volunteers trained under Hill form the
Association of Women Housing Workers.
1931
A team of local government officers form
the Institute of Housing.OctaviaHillBirthplaceHouse
1948
Association of Women Housing
Workers changes its name to the
Society of Housing Managers.
1965
The Society of Housing Managers
merges with the Institute of Housing to
form the Institute of Housing
Managers.
1974
Institute of Housing Managers changes
its name to the Institute of Housing.
1984
Institute of Housing receives its royal
charter.
1994
Institute of Housing becomes
Chartered Institute of Housing.
OctaviaHill,housingmanagementpioneerandfounderoftheNationalTrust,paintedbyJohnSingerSargentin1899
NTPL/JohnHammond
NTPL/AndreaJones
Factfile
OctaviaHill(1838–1912)
a Octavia Hill founded the Kyrle
Society, the first civic society to provide
arts, books and open spaces to the poor.
a The Kyrle Society was the forerunner
to the National Trust, of which she was a
founder member.
a She campaigned for open spaces and
‘outdoor sitting rooms’ for working class
families in London.
of her method and recognised the
critical importance of supportive fam-
ily relationships, a forerunner to con-
temporary models of today’s tenancy
sustainment and more recently, fam-
ily intervention projects. The Housing
and Working Classes Act 1890, imple-
mented shortly before Hill’s death in
1912, would later signal the beginning
of the social housing movement by
empowering local authorities to build
housing for poorer communities and
charge reasonable rents.
Recent debates around the role of
the social housing movement in
addressing worklessness show how
Hill’s influence on contemporary
housing management lingers on.
Social historians have traditionally
played second fiddle to the politically
palatable policy analysts. But there is
room for both approaches.
Opinion on Octavia Hill will
undoubtedly remain divided and her
work with the so-called deserving
poor will continue to court contro-
versy. The ebb and flow of housing cri-
tiques over the years may have eroded
the contribution of some key players.
But the echo of Octavia Hill’s voice will
continue to resonate for some time to
come, securing her position in hous-
ing’s pantheon of prominent figures.
Angela Maye-Banbury is a senior
lecturer in urban and regional studies
at Sheffield Hallam University
Octavia Hill Birthplace House,
www.octaviahill.org
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