作者: Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill (1838-1912) was an English social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the 19th century. She was opposed to municipal provision of housing, believing it to be bureaucratic and impersonal. Another of Hill”s concerns was the availability of open spaces for poor people. She campaigned against development on existing suburban woodlands, and helped to save London”s Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Fields from being built on. She was one of the three founders of the National Trust, set up to preserve places of historic interest or natural beauty for the enjoyment of the British public. Hill was also a founder member of the Charity Organization Society (now the charity Family Action) which organized charitable grants and pioneered a home-visiting service that formed the basis for modern social work. She was a member of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws in 1905.