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House property & its management : $b Some papers on the methods of management introduced by Miss Octavia Hill and adapted to modern conditions — John Shaqi

House property & its management : $b Some papers on the methods of management introduced by Miss Octavia Hill and adapted to modern conditionsHill, Octavia

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House property & its management : $b Some papers on the methods of management introduced by Miss Octavia Hill and adapted to modern conditions

Name: House property & its management : $b Some papers on the methods of management introduced by Miss Octavia Hill and adapted to modern conditions
Author: Hill, Octavia

Hill, Octavia

Housing -- England -- London; Landlord and tenant -- England -- London; Working class -- Dwellings; Working class -- England -- London

HOUSE PROPERTY
                            & ITS MANAGEMENT
SOME PAPERS ON THE METHODS OF MANAGEMENT INTRODUCED BY MISS OCTAVIA HILL
                    AND ADAPTED TO MODERN CONDITIONS

[Illustration: [Logo]]

                   LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
                 RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1




                       _First published in 1921_


                        (_All rights reserved_)




                              INTRODUCTION

          By I. G. GIBBON, D.Sc., C.B.E., Ministry of Health.


Of standards we have heard much in connection with new housing, and,
quite naturally, nearly always of material standards—of the number of
houses to the acre, the size and the number of rooms, the provision of
baths and the like; but of personal standards little, although persons
of experience know full well that, where there are difficulties, half
the trouble, at a moderate estimate, could be removed by personal
action. The experiment of the ownership and management of large numbers
of houses by Local Authorities is not free from the hazards of
democratic control; some in full sympathy with the experiment view it
not without some misgivings, and the misgivings will not be without
place if adequate measures are not taken for proper management.

It is timely, therefore, that we should be reminded of the most
instructive experiment made during the last century in the management of
house property, the work of Octavia Hill. Her experiment in house
management would probably have by now won her many more practical
followers had she been less of a social worker; but had she been less of
a social worker she would never have made the experiment. There may
still be a few of the comparatively small number of persons who know of
her work who look upon it as an attempt to insinuate a District Visitor
under the disguise of a rent collector. District Visitors doubtless have
their place and season; but the aim of those who would follow in the
footsteps of Octavia Hill, the Women Property Managers, is to manage
property on a firm business basis, to make it pay (and they have shown
that they can make it pay, more so in difficult circumstances than
business management of a dull routine kind), and to carry out the work
with knowledge and experience, with sympathy and tact, and with as
reasonable a regard to the genuine interests of the tenants as of the
owner. This is their aim, and, where person and place fit, their
achievement.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

House property & its management : $b Some papers on the methods of management introduced by Miss Octavia Hill and adapted to modern conditions

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