Oliver Hill (architect)

Oliver Falvey Hill (15 June 1887 – 29 April 1968) was a British architect, landscape architect, and garden designer. Starting as a follower of Edwin Lutyens, in the 1920s he gained a reputation as a designer of country houses. He turned towards architectural modernism in the 1930s, though in doing so he did not abandon his appreciation of natural materials. His plans made abundant use of curving lines. He also became known for luxurious interior decoration. Hill was the architect of the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, Lancashire and of the British pavilion at the Paris Exposition of 1937.

Oliver Hill was born at 89 Queen's Gate, Kensington, to William Neave Hill, a London businessman, and his wife Kate Ida née Franks. The family had roots in Aberdeen and he retained a lifelong affection for Scotland, choosing to serve in the London Scottish Regiment during World War I.

Following the suggestion of Edwin Lutyens, his early mentor, Hill's first step towards architecture was to gain experience in a builder's yard. In 1907 he became a pupil of architect William Flockhart. An interest in garden design was stimulated by a visit to the Garden of Eden in Venice, the garden of Frederic and Caroline Eden. She subsequently introduced him to her sister, the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, who became a friend. Setting up his own office, Hill's first major project (1910–14) was Moor Close, in Berkshire, where he created a complementary composition of terraces and gardens around a Jacobethan house which he extended.

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