Inverforth House (formally known as The Hill) is a large detached house at North End Way on the outskirts of

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

, NW3.Cherry and Pevsner 1999, p. 218. Owned by

William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , (, ; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Having been educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools ...

from 1904 to 1925, The Hill was bought by

Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth, PC (24 April 1865 – 17 September 1955) created and headed the firm of Andrew Weir and Co. shipowners of Glasgow. In the First World War he served as a minister in the coalition government: he was Surveyor Ge ...

after Leverhulme's death in 1925, and following was given to Manor House Hospital after Inverforth's death in 1956. Inverforth House was home to the Orthopaedic Society Hospital from the 1950s to the 1980s, and was converted into two houses and seven apartments in the late 1990s. Rebuilt in the

British Queen Anne Revival British Queen Anne Revival architecture, also known as Domestic Revival, is a style of building using red brick, white woodwork, and an eclectic mixture of decorative features, that became popular in the 1870s, both for houses and for larger buil ...

style in 1895 by the architectural firm Grayson and Ould, it is a

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 ...

listed building. Built from red brick, Inverforth House has a steeply pitched roof. The architectural style of Inverforth House has been described as "Neo-Georgian" with "Queen Anne style wings". In 2002

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

commemorated Viscount Leverhulme and geneticist and statistician

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who a ...

, who lived there as a child from 1896 to 1904, with

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

Location

Inverforth House is situated on North End Way, between Hampstead and Golders Green. The house and gardens adjoin the West Heath, with

Golders Hill Park Golders Hill Park is a formal park in Golders Green, London. It is managed by the City of London Corporation as part of the parkland and commons in and near Hampstead Heath, and is part of the Hampstead Heath Site of Metropolitan Importance fo ...

to the north. Sandy Heath and Hampstead Heath are to the south. Inverforth House is close to Heath House, which at 440 ft above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

, was the highest point in the

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...

History

From 1896 to 1904, the house was lived in by the auctioneer and fine arts dealer George Fisher, a partner in Robinson & Fisher and his family of five children, including a young Ronald, the future geneticist and statistician Sir

. Following his wife's death in 1904, George Fisher lost his fortune within 18 months, and the family moved south of the river to

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

. The original house on the site was built in 1807, and was rebuilt by the Liverpool architectural firm

Grayson and Ould Grayson and Ould was the title of an architectural practice in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, during the late 19th and early 20th century. The partners were George Enoch Grayson (1833/4–1912) (usually known as G. E. Grayson) and Edward Ould ...

, who greatly altered the house from 1905, their significant alterations included the rebuilding of the central block and the addition of northern and southern wings to the garden front. Grayson and Ould also designed a terrace facing the garden, and a

verandah A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

was added to the terrace in 1910 by

Thomas Hayton Mawson Thomas Hayton Mawson (5 May 1861 – 14 November 1933), known as T. H. Mawson, was a British garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner. Personal life Mawson was born in Nether Wyresdale, Lancashire, and left school at age 12. H ...

. A

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...

was added beneath the terrace in 1923 by Leslie Mansfield. The south wing of the house was extended and remodelled between 1924 and 1925 by Mawson, with a library wing added to the front of the house from 1913 to 1914. The library was built by William and Segar Owen of Warrington, who had designed buildings in Leverhulme's

Port Sunlight Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...

development. The interiors of Inverforth House are richly decorated in styles including Jacobean to

William and Mary William and Mary often refers to: * The joint reign of William III of England (II of Scotland) and Mary II of England (and Scotland) * William and Mary style, a furniture design common from 1700 to 1725 named for the couple William and Mary may ...

, and a style reminiscent of William Adam. The entrance hall features a carved marble staircase. Inverforth's House interior style has been described by

as "A rich architectural amalgam reflecting the tastes of a notable patron".

Gardens

The notable gardens, also designed by Mawson were laid out from 1906. A northern garden was laid out in the 1920s by Leslie Mansfield. The greater part of the gardens are now owned by the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

, and open to the public as

The Hill Garden The Hill Garden may refer to: * The Hill Garden and Pergola, Hampstead Heath, London, England * Berggarten (''The Hill Garden''), part of the gardens of Herrenhausen Palace, Germany {{dab ...

Notes

References

*Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus. (1999) ''The Buildings of England: London 4: North''

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

External links

The recollections of a maid at Inverforth House in the 1930s
{{Authority control Houses completed in 1895 Buildings by Grayson and Ould Gardens by Thomas Hayton Mawson Grade II listed houses in the London Borough of Camden Houses in Hampstead Queen Anne architecture in the United Kingdom