Octavia Hill (1838-1912) was a prominent English social worker in the second half of the 19th century. Her work for the improvement of housing and housing management has been widely appreciated. However, although she was one of the founders of the National Trust, less attention has been given to her campaign for better urban and rural environments. She exerted a particularly strong influence through her campaign for the preservation of, and access to, open space in both cities and the countryside, thus influencing ideas and opinions that were to lead to the emergence of environmental planning.
This article examines the content and scope of Hill's contribution to the “open space” movement. It places her activities within the context of rapid urban change and growth in Victorian London, especially from 1865 onward. It also argues that her achievements were of greater importance than has previously been acknowledged by geographers.
Her interests in open space may be categorized, from her own writings, as four-fold: space “to live, ” “for children, ” “for fresh air, ” and “for beauty.” From small beginnings in Freshwater Place in crowded inner London where, in 1866 she cleared a playground for local children, her work developed to include the opening up for public use of disused burial grounds and private open spaces. As London spread outward into the countryside, she campaigned for the preservation of old common lands and other open spaces. Her work for the permanent opening of Parliament Hill Fields in north London provides an example.
Hill fought using great skill in writing, publicity, discussion, and negotiation to overcome problems created by the weakness of existing Acts of Parliament and complex local government arrangements ill-suited to managing the problems of rapid urban growth. Her work extended outward from London to include the areas of natural beauty in the Kentish Wealden area of southeast England and as far away as the beautiful Lake District of Cumbria. She was an early leader of excursions to the countryside, often with the tenants of the houses that she managed in crowded and smoke-ridden London.
With her sister Miranda, she established the Kyrle Society in 1875. Centers of beauty were established in industrial cities to teach the value of environmental and artistic qualities to interested men and women of the working classes. An Open Space Subcommittee was set up in 1879 and its work foreshadowed that of the National Trust, established in 1895.
Indications are given of the influence of Hill's work on John Ruskin, William Morris, and others. Her links with Raymond Unwin and the “Garden City” movement were also influential. Although neither an architect nor an urban planner, Hill's zeal in advocating the importance of environmental quality and access to open space was especially noteworthy in changing opinions about the need for urban and environmental planning in Great Britain at a formative time in the development of town and country planning concepts. Her leadership in these respects has gone largely unrecognized by geographers.

View full abstract

The extent of the moor is decreasing in the Senjogahara, an upland moor in a volcanic area. Topographic maps and field observations suggest the invasion of Larix kaempferi and Betula platyphylla into the moor. This paper discusses the physiographic factors controlling the degradation of the moor in the transitional zone between an alluvial fan and the moor based on field investigations of vegetation, groundwater level, snow depth, micro-landforms, and deposits.
The L. kaempferi forest is accompanied by lobate forms and cobbles that are characteristics of alluvial fans, whereas the B. platyphylla forest lacks these features. The boundary between the two types of vegetation well defines the distribution of the lobate forms and alluvial fan deposits. Geomorphic factors are considered to influence the vegetation both directly and indirectly. The direct factor is fluvial sedimentation, which favors the L. kaempferi forest as a pioneering plant community. The indirect factor is the microrelief, which affects the depth of the groundwater table that controls vegetation through moisture conditions.
The invasion of tree species into the moor influences hydrologic and micrometeorologic processes. The large roughness and small albedo of the L. kaempferi forest result in deep and variable groundwater levels because of the intensive interception of rainfall and evapotranspiration. The B. platyphylla forest, which is surrounded by the moor lacking trees, favors deep snow since the wind velocity is reduced and the snow is trapped.
The B. platyphylla forest is newer than the L, kaempferi forest. This apparently indicates that the B. platyphylla forest precedes the L. kaempferi forest in the succession. However, the B. platyphylla forest is unlikely to be replaced by the L. kaempferi forest in the present environment, because the shallow groundwater level and deep snow depth in the B. platyphylla forest prevent the succession. The environmental conditions play a more important role in the landscape than the succession stages.
The results of the field investigations show that the L. kaempferi forest is different from the B. platyphylla forest in the age and process of formation, and that the major control on the landscape is geomorphic processes. This indicates that the degradation of the Senjogahara moor depends primarily on geomorphic factors.

View full abstract