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

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

in the

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

, NW3. Owned by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme from 1904 to 1925, The Hill was bought by Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth after Leverhulme's death in 1925, and following was given to Manor House Hospital after Inverforth's death in 1956. It became the women's section of Manor House Hospital, with about 100 beds and a Nurses' Home for 60-70 staff. Never part of the NHS, the Hospital was funded by the Industrial Orthopaedic Society, a trade union. According to the developer, mistakenly, 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 style in 1895 by the architectural firm Grayson and Ould, it is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

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

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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

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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 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 mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, was the highest point in the

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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, 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 (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...

was added to the terrace in 1910 by Thomas Hayton Mawson. 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 histori ...

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

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 al ...

, 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

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, and open to the public as The Hill Garden and Pergola. Several buildings within the garden are individually listed at grade II* or grade II. Those at grade II* include: the summerhouse at the western end of the pergola, which has extensive views over Hampstead Heath towards

Harrow on the Hill Harrow on the Hill or Harrow-on-the-Hill is a locality and historic village in the borough of London Borough of Harrow, Harrow in Greater London, England. The name refers to Harrow Hill, ,Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) ...

; a summerhouse to the south of the garden; the southern

pergola A pergola is most commonly used as an outdoor garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support crossbeams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are t ...

and terrace; the Cruciform pergola; a bridge; the Central Temple summerhouse; and the western pergola. The structures listed at grade II are: the pond and its architectural surround; and the garden terrace steps.

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 Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

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