Octavia Hill and Ada Salter: how two women tackled London’s challenges

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Octavia Hill and Ada Salter were both pioneering women who sought to tackle the problems faced by poor Londoners in the later nineteenth and, in Salter’s case, through to the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in Rotherhithe.  The remedies that they worked for were in some respects the same – better housing and fresh air for example – but in other respects very different, with Salter being more politically engaged and Hill seeking to avoid party politics.  We explore both women’s work to see how each responded to the challenges and opportunities of their day.

Dr Elizabeth Baigent is a University Reader in the History of Geography at the University of Oxford.  She came across Octavia Hill, Ada Salter, and others like them, whilst Research Director of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  Her book on Octavia Hill, published in conjunction with the conference she organised for the National Trust to mark the centenary of Hill’s death, is available free (electronically) here: https://uolpress.co.uk/book/octavia-hill-social-activism-and-the-remaking-of-british-society/