Inverforth House

Inverforth House

Substantial house, now a convalescent home, located on North End Way in Camden. The original house dates from 1807 and was rebuilt around 1895. It was successively modified by William Hesketh Lever, Viscount Leverhulme, who owned the house from 1904 until his death in 1925.

The alterations commissioned by Leverhulme included rebuilding of the central block and the addition of north and south wings to the garden front (now with 20th-century second storeys) around 1905 by the Liverpool architects Grayson and Ould, who also designed the terrace along the garden front. Thomas H Mawson added an Ionic verandah to this terrace around 1910. The terrace was later altered in 1923 by Leslie Mansfield, who added a ballroom beneath it. The south wing was extended and remodelled from 1924 to 1925 by Mawson in conjunction with TH Mawson and Sons. A library wing was added to the entrance front from 1913 to 1914 by William and Segar Owen of Warrington.

The exterior is constructed of red brick with a steeply pitched, hipped tiled roof to the eaves. The design adopts a Neo-Georgian manner with Queen Anne style wings to the garden front. The building comprises two storeys plus a roof storey and basement. The north and south wings were originally single storey.

The garden front is unified horizontally by a Portland stone Ionic colonnade across the ground floor, with three segmental projections and balustrading to the terrace. A slightly projecting centrepiece of five bays sits beneath a hipped roof with an open segmental pediment to the central dormer. The centre of the first floor features a canted bay window of three windows, flanked by smaller canted timber bay windows, with a further four windows to the wings on either side. The windows have flush frames with small panes, some incorporating transoms and mullions. Stone eaves cornice runs throughout. The projecting wings feature applied brick half-columns between bays; the three bays closest to the house are treated as an arcade with arches between piers, while the remaining bays have brick architraves to 18-paned sashes. The brickwork is largely rubbed, with richly moulded brick cornices.

The interiors are richly decorated in various styles ranging from Jacobean to William and Mary and Adamesque. The entrance hall features Ionic pilasters and a carved marble staircase. Of particular note is a fine Adam-style room opening onto the terrace at ground floor level, which features a columnar screen and decorative plasterwork ceiling and cornice. A marble columned lobby occupies the ground floor to the south of this space. The music room is panelled in 17th-century style and probably incorporates some original 17th-century woodwork, particularly in its decorative chimney-piece. The interiors represent a rich architectural amalgam reflecting the tastes of a notable patron.

Following Leverhulme's death in 1925, the house was purchased by Lord Inverforth. Upon his death, The Hill was presented to Manor House Hospital in 1956. The gardens were designed and laid out by Thomas H Mawson from 1906, with further northern gardens laid out during the 1920s by Leslie Mansfield. The garden west of the Formal Pond and further northern garden remain under separate ownership and are known as The Hill Garden; this garden is open to the public.