Oliver Hill

Oliver Hill was a 20th Century architect whose life and career spanned the major events, trends and styles of the that century both influencing and absorbing elements of each. A friend of Edward Lutyens, Oliver Hill was initially apprenticed to a builder before moving to work for the Scottish architect William Flockhart<ref>http://www.architecture.com/RIBA/Awards/RoyalGoldMedal/175Exhibition/SlippedThrough/OliverHill.aspx</ref>. He left a broad body of work including houses and apartment blocks. He also designed the Midland Hotel in Morecombe, and a whole resort in Frinton-on-Sea.

Hill's Houses[edit]

Hill's housing work is a conundrum, as he is known both for his Arts & Crafts masterpieces like Moor Close, Berkshire, built in 1911 for Charles Birch Crisp, which shows strong echoes of Lutyens' influence and Cour on the Mull of Kintyre<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3305008/Master-builder-Oliver-Hill.html</ref> and his groundbreaking International 'Moderne' houses like Joldwynds in Surrey and Landfall in Poole, Dorset<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3305008/Master-builder-Oliver-Hill.html.</ref>.

In 1934, Hill was appointed chief architect on the Frinton Park Estate, in the sleepy Essex coastal town of Frinton. This an ambitious project that was originally intended to include over 1,000 houses as well as civic and social buildings. Hill designed several himself, but also encouraged young architects to submit ideas, including Wells Coates, Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff (of The De la Warr Pavilion) and Maxwell Fry.

The project fell into difficulty with issues arising from the budget and materials, and now only 40 houses remain. This figure includes the former show house, The Round House at 7 Cliff Way, which contains a sweeping staircase and patterned floor reminiscent of the Midland Hotel but on a more domestic scale.