Hill, The, Hampstead, (also known as Inverforth House), London, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest: 

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Hill House was built in the early 19th century and is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1866 on the same site and orientation as the present mansion. The gardens lay to the west and consisted of scattered trees on a large lawn and boundary shrubberies and walks. On the west side was a double shrubbery with an open area (probably kitchen gardens) between. A walk led from the gardens through this area out onto Hampstead Heath. Hill House was remodelled in 1896.

Sir William Hesketh Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) purchased Hill House in 1904. The house was extensively rebuilt and enlarged for him, after which it became known as The Hill. The architects included E A Ould, William and Segar Owen and James Lomax-Simpson and the work included the addition of north and south wings to the garden front, by Grayson and Ould, about 1905; a terrace along the garden front by Grayson and Ould, to which Thomas H Mawson added an Ionic Verandah, about 1910; a library wing added to the entrance front, by William and Segar Owen, 1913-1914; alterations to the terrace by Leslie Mansfield, who added a ballroom underneath it, 1923; and the extension and remodelling of the south wing by Mawson in conjunction with T H Mawson & Sons, 1924-1925.

The gardens were laid out in three phases, each following the purchase of the three separate properties that make up the present site (Hill House, Heath Lodge and Cedar Lawn. The first and second phases were designed by Thomas H Mawson (1861-1933), who had already worked for Lever on his properties in Lancashire (Thornton Manor, Lever Park and Rivington Gardens.

When Lever purchased Hill House, the garden was on steeply sloping ground and Mawson levelled the site into terraces, providing terrace gardens in front of the house, a level lawn, and a pergola around the west and south sides of the garden in 1906. The terraces were constructed with the spoil from the Hampstead tube excavation. The kitchen gardens were laid out between the pergola and the south-west boundary of The Hill garden. In 1911 Lord Levehulme purchased Heath Lodge (the neighbouring property to the north-west) and demolished that house. Mawson extended the pergola across a bridge over the public road that separated the two properties to a circular Garden Temple and then after a long stretch of pergola to a Belvedere at the western end, overlooking the Heath and the former Heath Lodge gardens. A conservatory on the west side of the original pergola was demolished in the process and replaced by a Pergola Temple. Service buildings were built on the eastern portion of the newly acquired land and the two-acre gardens were incorporated within the scheme.

During the First World War Leverhulme purchased Cedar Lawn (the neighbouring property to the south) and in 1922 that house was also demolished and the pergola and garden were extended to the south.

Lord Leverhulme died in 1925 and the property was acquired in 1926 by Andrew Weir, first Baron Inverforth. Lord Inverforth lived at The Hill until his death in 1955, leaving the property to Manor House Hospital, who renamed the house 'Inverforth House' in his memory.

The property was divided in 1960 when the London County Council purchased the western part of the site and the north-western part of the pergola. The pergola and gardens were restored and opened to the public in 1963 as 'The Hill Gardens'. The southern part of the pergola was made available for public access in 1971 but was later closed after its condition became unsafe. In 1991 the Hospital offered their part of the pergola to the Corporation of London, who had owned the north-western part of The Hill Gardens since the abolition of the Greater London Council. The Corporation restored the pergola and laid out further gardens to the west of it (on the site of the kitchen garden) in the late 1990s. Inverforth House and gardens was sold to developers in the 1990s and is being developed as private residences (1998).