Hills House is a 17th-century residence located on the Village Road in
Denham, Buckinghamshire
Denham is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, approximately from central London, northwest of Uxbridge and just north of junction 1 of the M40 motorway. The name is derived from the Old English for ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, it was the home of actress
Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). After her success in ''The Scarle ...
and her husband, the film producer
Sir Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)Sir John and Lady Mills.
Description
The house is built of red brick with a tile roof. It has four gables facing the street, alternately shaped and stepped, and features three storeys. The sections of the house frontage differ. The left section has six double-hung, flush windows with glazing bars, flat brick arches and small brick cornice mouldings. The right section windows have cambered brick relieving arches. The ground floor has an entrance door with wooden architrave and hood on carved brackets. The gables have brick copings and the ground and first floor have brick bands. The interior is reported to feature a semi-circular recess with fluted pilasters and moulded cornice and newel staircase in oak. The exterior is partially covered with wisteria vine.
The house is listed as
Grade II*
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
on the
National Heritage list for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...
. A plaque placed on the house by The Heritage Foundation commemorates Mills's residence.
History
Alexander Korda (1893–1956) bought the house and estate at Denham for the sum of £15,000, planning to build film studios on the property. He managed to obtain permission for the construction and sent to California for architects to build the studios,
Denham Film Studios
Denham Film Studios was a British film production studio operating from 1936 to 1952, founded by Alexander Korda.
Notable films made at Denham include ''Brief Encounter'' and David Lean's '' Great Expectations''. From the 1950s to the 1970s t ...
, which opened in 1936 but suffered from financial difficulties. After Korda's marriage to film star Merle Oberon (1911–1979) in 1939, the couple lived in the house until their divorce in 1945. The area where the film studio stood, known as 'The Fisheries', is now a park.
Sir John Mills bought Hills House in 1975. However, the garden and the house eventually became too large and the stairs too difficult for the elderly Sir John (1908–2005) and Lady Mills (1911–2005). In 2003 they moved from the house to a bungalow in the village of Denham.