|
|
| Octavia Hill (1838-1912) was a woman ahead of her time. An artist and a radical, she was a pioneer of affordable housing and can be seen as the founder of modern social work. Her formidable achievements as an open space campaigner led to her co-founding The National Trust, which today protects over 300 historic properties and keeps 250,000 hectares of land open to all.
| 
 | |
See what life was really like for the poor in the days before sanitary reform!
| | | Her life and work is documented in Octavia Hill’s Birthplace House in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, a handsome Georgian house facing the river Nene. The house and its displays demonstrate this remarkable woman’s influence on spheres of life still relevant today: her fight against poverty and disease and her quest to bring peace and beauty into the lives of ordinary working people.
Exciting new developments
This year, a major building programme is restoring the Georgian Grade II* listed building to its original size. Open from 15 March to the end of October 2008.
New displays will include:
| • |
Sense and Sanitation: conditions before the sanitary reform activities of Octavia Hill’s grandfather, Dr Thomas Southwood Smith |
| • | Bed Bugs and Back-to-Backs: a history of social housing |
| • | Art and Open Space: commemorating Octavia’s civic amenity work |
| • | For Ever, For Everyone: the founding of the National Trust, one of Octavia’s finest achievements | | • | The Secret Garden: a recreation of one of Octavia’s “outdoor sitting rooms” |
Visit us soon, for opening times see the right hand column
>> Who was Octavia Hill? >> Birthplace House |
|
|
 |
| |  |
|  |
| | |
Giant bedbugs and other horrors! See for yourself the nasty side of life in Octavia Hill’s time.
| |
Enjoy one of Octavia Hill's "outdoor sitting rooms" in our hidden courtyard.
| |
| | | | | | | |  |
|
From 15 March 2008, Octavia Hill’s Birthplace House will be open on Mon, Tues, Wed, Sat & Sun, from 1pm – 4.30pm, (last admissions 4pm), so visits can be combined with the National Trust’s delightful Peckover House, nearby. We open to groups at other times by appointment.
The Birthplace House is staffed entirely by volunteers. | | |
 | | |
Octavia Hill Society Coach Day – visits to Octavia Hill sites. Sunday, 10th August 2008.
>> More
Octavia Hill Commemoration Day – Memorial Lecture and Commemoration Service, Wisbech. Sunday, 7th December 2008.
>> More
Keep up to date with events, get on our emailing list now
|
|
|
