Hill Homes (UK)

Unearthing 80 Years of Margaret Hill’s Legacy

Archival cataloguing, historical research and storytelling for a UK housing association with extraordinary origins

At a glance

80 years of history
1.5 years of research
1 historical narrative
1 archives project
1 staff training
1 in-house oral history programme
1 historical timeline

London

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London 〰️

A founding visionary - and her famous brother

Hill Homes is a UK housing association founded in 1944 by Margaret Hill, CBE, with a mission to give older people the care, support and accommodation they need to live their lives to the fullest. The 80th anniversary of Hill Homes' founding in 2024 coincided with the 80th anniversary of D-Day — a powerful contextual backdrop for a project rooted in wartime community spirit.

Margaret Hill came from a remarkable family. Her brother was John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century. Yet it is Margaret herself, less celebrated in history books, who left the lasting legacy that is Hill Homes. Rediscovering and amplifying her story was at the heart of History Ink's brief.

The archives project

Commissioned by Hill Homes CEO Catherine Woods, the 80th Anniversary Project had the in-house archives. We worked closely with Hill Homes team members to locate, sort and partially catalogue the organisation's incredible historical materials.

The collection includes the first Chairman's Reports (signed by Margaret Hill herself), rare black and white photographs of matrons and residents at former Hill Homes properties in Highgate, and newspaper clippings illuminating the lives of early residents from the 1940s onwards. During the project, we also delivered archives training to Hill Homes staff, designed bespoke collection policies, and the basis of an archives catalogue that will guide the archive into the future.

A new written history of Hill Homes

We drew on the newly unearthed archival materials as well as the oral histories recorded by Hill Homes team member Phil Wilson (and transcribed by History Ink) to write a fully updated account of the Hill Homes story. The last published history of the organisation was Jules Kosky's 'Top of the Hill' (1994), written over thirty years ago by a Nuffield Lodge resident. History Ink's new history brings the story fully up to date, capturing eight decades of care, community and social purpose.