John Cathles Hill was an architect and property developer who was born in Hawkshill, part of Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

. When he was three years old his family moved to the village Auchterhouse

Auchterhouse

Auchterhouse is a village, community, and civil parish in the Scottish council area of Angus, located north west of Dundee, south east of Alyth and south west of Forfar. It lies on the southern edge of the Sidlaw Hills, below Auchterhouse Hill, high...

 in Angus County (now Tayside

Tayside

Tayside Region was a local government region of Scotland from 15 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. It was created by the 1973 Act following recommendations made by the 1969 Wheatley Report which attempted to replace the mishmash of counties, cities, burghs and districts, with a uniform two-tier system...

). His father was toll booth

Toll road

A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...

 keeper of Auchterhouse which he combined with working as a cartwright

Cartwright

Cartwright is the occupation of making and repairing carts . It can also refer to:Persons:* Edmund Cartwright, English clergyman and inventor of the power loom.In places:* Cartwright, Manitoba, Canada...

 and joiner

Joiner

A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...

.

When Hill was seventeen he left home and became a self-employed journeyman

Journeyman

A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....

 carpenter and joiner. After two years he settled in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 where he attended the Mechanics' Institute. There he learned the principles of architecture and construction. At the age of 21 he moved to London. After quickly establishing himself as a joiner, Hill was able to set up his own joinery business within a year. His business was successful and it was not long before he was exploiting the suburban building boom and building houses. By 1881 he was described as a "builder employing 8 men". His first offices were established in Archway, London.

Hill became a prolific developer-architect in North London. Records indicate that he was responsible for building 2,397 houses in or near London and in the neighbourhood of Peterborough

Peterborough

Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...

. He focussed on suburban communities for the middle classes complete with houses, shops and pubs. In the 1890s he built up a good part of Harringay

Harringay

Harringay is a residential area of North London, part of the London Borough of Haringey, United Kingdom. It is centred on the section of Green Lanes running between the northern boundary of Finsbury Park up to the southern boundary of Duckett's Common, not far from Turnpike Lane.-Location:The...

, North London. In addition to a few streets of terraced houses to the east of Green Lanes, the development also included a magnificent terrace of shops, Grand Parade, and a vast ornate public house, The Salisbury

The Salisbury

The Salisbury is a Grade II* listed pub on Grand Parade in Harringay, north London.-History:The Salisbury was built and designed by John Cathles Hill, founder of The London Brick Company. The pub was opened in 1899 with W.A. Cathles, a cousin of Hill, as the manager...

. He is also credited with large developments in Crouch End

Crouch End

Crouch End is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey.- Location :Crouch End is in a valley between Harringay to the east, Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green to the north, Finsbury Park and Archway to the south and Highgate to the west...

 including the Grade II* listed Queens pub in Crouch End (and is also in CAMRA's National inventory

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors

The National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors is a register of public houses in the United Kingdom with interiors which have been noted as being of significant historic interest, having remained largely unchanged for at least 30 years, but usually since at least World War II...

), the Broadway Parade on the western side of Crouch End Broadway and the Rathcole estate.

As a developer Hill experienced a shortage of bricks. He resolved this problem by acquiring a brickfield at Fletton

Fletton

Fletton is a residential area and electoral ward of the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. For parliamentary purposes it falls within North West Cambridgeshire constituency...

 in 1889. This eventually became the London Brick Company. At his Fletton works, he built a huge kiln, called 'Napoleon' which was the biggest in the world.

Hill also owned a chain of five off-licences in north London. When his businesses ran into trouble, these five were taken over by his cousin William Cathles and some survived till the middle of the Twentieth century.

When he first moved to London Hill was recorded as living at 9 Albert Road, Tottenham

Tottenham

Tottenham is an area of the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated north north east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham...

, Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

. In 1882 he married a grocer’s daughter, Matilda Mose and by 1890 they had moved to Highgate, at the top of Whitehall Park. Four years later, success enabled a further move to a pseudo-gothic mansion called Southwood Hall in Highgate.

It is likely that by the middle of the first decade of the 20th century, his business was not succeeding as it had before. In 1905 the family moved out of Southwood and into a mansion flat in Hornsey Gardens, albeit an elegant one. In 1912 Hill was declared bankrupt with a deficit of over one million pounds.

In 1910 Hill founded a national association of brick manufacturers to try and tackle the trade's endemic competition which had been threatening its ruin. He was a local councillor both in Fletton and served on the London County Council

London County Council

London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

 from 1910.

Hill died of a heart attack on 5 April 1915 and is buried at Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....

, London.