basic

Click on the thumbnails to get a larger picture, then on

on the top LHS of the screen to return to this page.

Fallen tree

Ivy

Builder's special house

Lights

The Wells Tavern where we had coffee

The Children were driving carefully

Colletia spinosissima

Rigid and spiky

Lord Leverhulme acquired The Hill’ on Hampstead Heath in 1904. Over the following years he remodelled ‘The Hill’ completely (including building a ballroom underneath the terrace in 1923) and expanded his land to incorporate the space we have today.

He also wanted a grand spot to entertain guests and, more specifically, to host summer parties! Enter the Pergola. He employed Thomas Mawson, a landscape architect and garden designer, for the task of realising his dream. Both Lancashire born, Lever had used Mawson on a number of his projects around the country. The main challenge was to raise the height of the gardens by 20-30ft to create a terraced landscape. The terraces were created out of the spoil from the construction of the extension of the Northern Line to Hampstead!

Inverforth House picture from the Internet

After Lever’s death Hill House and the grounds were bought by Baron Inverforth. When he died in 1955 he left it to Manor House Hospital who named it Inverforth House in his memory. London County Council took it over in 1960 by which point it was in a bad state of dilapidation and decline. The gardens were restored and opened to the public in 1963. When the Corporation of London took over in the late 1980’s further restoration work was carried out.