William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme

According to W.P. Jolly, "Of the dozen or so houses that Lever lived in, and upon which he stamped his own mark of reconstruction, the three most important were Thornton Manor, The Hill at Hampstead in London, and The Bungalow at Rivington." A further building he purchased was Rockhaven in 1899 in Horwich. It was built in 1820 by Richard Brownlow, a lawyer, who later became a recluse. It was acquired by Lever after Brownlow's death and was rented out until demolition in 1942, its land was used for coal mining.

Thornton Manor, Cheshire

In 1888, shortly after the birth of William, his only surviving child, Lever first rented then bought Thornton Manor in Thornton Hough in the Wirral, Cheshire. He subsequently acquired more land in the village and many of its picturesque, but outdated, houses were demolished and replaced with modern homes which were rented to Port Sunlight employees. The village was later provided with community amenities including a school, shops, social establishments and a church. Thornton Manor was restructured, and the gardens greatly extended.

The Hill at Hampstead

In 1904, Lever purchased The Hill, an Edwardian mansion at Hampstead. It was renamed Inverforth House in 1925 after his death. He rebuilt the house and made additions including a wing on each side of the house, a ballroom and art gallery. In 1911 and 1914 he acquired two neighbouring properties to expand his garden. This led to a dispute with Hampstead Borough Council over Lever's intentions to take over a public right of way to join the two plots; an issue that was not resolved to his satisfaction. The Hill was his main home from 1919.

Lever was a major benefactor to his native town, Bolton, where he was made a Freeman of the County Borough in 1902. In 1899, he bought Hall i' th' Wood, one time home of Samuel Crompton, and restored it as a museum for the town. He donated 360 acres (150 hectares) of land and landscaped Lever Park in Rivington in 1902. Lever was responsible for the formation of Bolton School after re-endowing Bolton Grammar School and Bolton High School for Girls in 1913. He donated the land for Bolton's largest park, Leverhulme Park, in 1914. In 1920 he donated £50 to the Selborne Society campaign to purchase land in west London, as the "Gilbert White Memorial" – it is now known as the Perivale Wood Local Nature Reserve.

Lever endowed a school of tropical medicine at Liverpool University, gave Lancaster House in London to the British nation and endowed the Leverhulme Trust set up to provide funding for education and research, the trust in 2017 became benefactor to Rivington and Blackrod High School and Harper Green School, both becoming Leverhulme Church of England Academies in Bolton. The garden of his former London residence 'The Hill' in Hampstead, designed by Thomas Mawson, is open to the public and has been renamed Inverforth House. A blue plaque at Inverforth House commemorating Lever was unveiled by his great-granddaughter, Jane Heber-Percy, in 2002.

Lever built many houses in Thornton Hough which became a model village comparable to Port Sunlight and in 1906 built Saint George's United Reformed Church. The Lady Lever Art Gallery opened in 1922 and is in the Port Sunlight conservation area. In 1915 Lever acquired a painting entitled Suspense by Charles Burton Barber. The painting was previously owned by his competitor, A & F Pears, who used paintings such as Bubbles by John Everett Millais to promote its products.

Prior to serving in cabinet, Lever unsuccessfully contested Birkenhead (UK Parliament constituency) in 1892, 1894, 1895, and also lost at Ormskirk (UK Parliament constituency) in 1910. Lever was a lifelong supporter of William Ewart Gladstone and Liberalism. He was invited to contest elections for the Liberal Party. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wirral constituency between 1906 and 1909 and used his maiden speech in the House of Commons to urge Henry Campbell-Bannerman's government to introduce a national old age pension, such as the one he provided for his workers. On the recommendation of the Liberal Party, he was created a baronet in 1911 and raised to the peerage as Baron Leverhulme on 21 June 1917, the "hulme" element of his title being in honour of his wife, Elizabeth Hulme.

Lever had been justice of the peace for Cheshire, he was also High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1917. In November 1918 Lord Leverhulme was invited to become Mayor of Bolton though he was not a councillor because the council wanted to honour a "Notable son of the Town" as a mark of the high regard the citizens of Bolton had for him. He was elevated to the viscountcy on 27 November 1922. Also, Lever received the Order of Leopold II.