Holland House, originally known as
Cope Castle, was one of the first
great houseA great house is a large and stately residence; the term encompasses different styles of dwelling in different countries. The name refers to the makeup of the household rather than to any particular architectural style. It particularly refers to large households of times past in Anglophone...
s built in
KensingtonKensington is a district of West London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, located west of Charing Cross. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, and is situated in
Holland ParkHolland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London in England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
.
Holland House was built in 1605 for
Sir Walter CopeSir Walter Cope was an English noble and government official of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was probably born at Hardwick Manor, near Banbury, Oxfordshire...
. It presided over a estate that stretched from
Holland Park AvenueHolland Park Avenue is a street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London in England. The street runs from Notting Hill Gate in the east to the Holland Park Roundabout in the west, and forms a part of the old west road connecting London with Oxford and the west of...
to the current site of
Earl's Court tube stationEarl's Court tube station is a London Underground station in Earls Court. The station is located between Earls Court Road and Warwick Road . It is on the boundary of Travelcard Zone 1 and Zone 2 and is in both zones....
, and contained exotic trees imported by
John Tradescant the YoungerJohn Tradescant the Younger , son of John Tradescant the elder, was a botanist and gardener, born in Meopham, Kent and educated at The King's School, Canterbury...
.
Following the death of
King James IJames I may refer to:* James I, Count of La Marche , Count of Ponthieu* King James I of Aragon * King James I of Sicily , also King James II of Aragon...
's son
Henry Frederick, Prince of WalesHenry Frederick, Prince of Wales was the eldest son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name comes from grandfathers Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark....
in November 1612, he spent the night at Cope Castle, being joined the following day by his son
Prince CharlesCharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
and granddaughter Princess Elizabeth, and
Frederick V, Elector PalatineFrederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia...
.
Cope's son-in-law,
Henry Rich, 1st Earl of HollandHenry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland was an English aristocrat, courtier and soldier.-Life:He was the son of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick and of Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich, and the younger brother of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick...
eventually inherited the house.
Holland House, originally known as
Cope Castle, was one of the first
great houseA great house is a large and stately residence; the term encompasses different styles of dwelling in different countries. The name refers to the makeup of the household rather than to any particular architectural style. It particularly refers to large households of times past in Anglophone...
s built in
KensingtonKensington is a district of West London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, located west of Charing Cross. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, and is situated in
Holland ParkHolland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London in England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
.
Origins, in the Civil War, and beyond
Holland House was built in 1605 for
Sir Walter CopeSir Walter Cope was an English noble and government official of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was probably born at Hardwick Manor, near Banbury, Oxfordshire...
. It presided over a estate that stretched from
Holland Park AvenueHolland Park Avenue is a street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London in England. The street runs from Notting Hill Gate in the east to the Holland Park Roundabout in the west, and forms a part of the old west road connecting London with Oxford and the west of...
to the current site of
Earl's Court tube stationEarl's Court tube station is a London Underground station in Earls Court. The station is located between Earls Court Road and Warwick Road . It is on the boundary of Travelcard Zone 1 and Zone 2 and is in both zones....
, and contained exotic trees imported by
John Tradescant the YoungerJohn Tradescant the Younger , son of John Tradescant the elder, was a botanist and gardener, born in Meopham, Kent and educated at The King's School, Canterbury...
.
Following the death of
King James IJames I may refer to:* James I, Count of La Marche , Count of Ponthieu* King James I of Aragon * King James I of Sicily , also King James II of Aragon...
's son
Henry Frederick, Prince of WalesHenry Frederick, Prince of Wales was the eldest son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name comes from grandfathers Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark....
in November 1612, he spent the night at Cope Castle, being joined the following day by his son
Prince CharlesCharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
and granddaughter Princess Elizabeth, and
Frederick V, Elector PalatineFrederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia...
.
Cope's son-in-law,
Henry Rich, 1st Earl of HollandHenry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland was an English aristocrat, courtier and soldier.-Life:He was the son of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick and of Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich, and the younger brother of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick...
eventually inherited the house. He was later beheaded for his Royalist activities during the
Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
and the house was then used as an army headquarters, being regularly visited by
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
. After the war, it was owned by various members of the family and renamed Holland House. In 1719,
Joseph AddisonJoseph Addison was an English essayist, poet and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...
, the English essayist, poet and politician, died in the building.
Holland House passed to the Edwardes family in 1721.
Henry Fox, 1st Baron HollandHenry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, PC was a leading British politician of the eighteenth century. He identified primarily with the Whig faction. He notably held the posts of Secretary for War and Paymaster of the forces, from which he enriched himself, but while widely tipped as a future Prime...
died at Holland House in 1774 and thereafter it was inherited by his descendants until the title became extinct with the death of Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland in 1859; however, his widow continued to live there for many years, gradually selling off outlying parts of the park for development. In 1874, the estate passed to a distant Fox cousin,
Henry Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of IlchesterHenry Edward Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of Ilchester PC , was a British peer and Liberal politician.Ilchester was the son of Hon. John Fox-Strangways, fourth son of Henry Thomas Fox-Strangways, 2nd Earl of Ilchester. His mother was Amelia Marjoribanks, daughter of Edward Marjoribanks...
.
As 19th century social centre
Under the
3rd Lord HollandHenry Richard Vassal-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland of Holland and 3rd Baron Holland of Foxley was an English politician and a major figure in Whig politics in the early 19th century.-Biography:...
and his wife,
Lady HollandElizabeth Vassall Fox, Baroness Holland was an English political hostess and the wife of Whig politician Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland...
, the house became noted as a glittering social, literary and political centre with many celebrated visitors such as
ByronGeorge Gordon Byron, later Noel, 6th Baron Byron, of Rochdale, FRS, and commonly known today as Lord Byron was an English poet and a leading figure in Romanticism...
, Thomas Macaulay, the poet
Samuel RogersSamuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron...
,
'Conversation' SharpRichard Sharp, FRS, FSA , also known as "Conversation" Sharp, was a hat-maker, banker, merchant, poet, critic, British politician, but above all - doyen of the conversationalists....
, Benjamin Disraeli,
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
and Sir Walter Scott.The figure of the political and historical writer
John AllenJohn Allen M.D. was a prominent eighteenth and nineteenth century political and historical writer, and Master of the College of God's Gift in Dulwich .-Early life:...
was so associated with the house that he was known as
Holland House Allen and there is a room in the house named after him.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine described Holland House as having had a "Gilt Chamber", where "the figures over the fireplace were painted in flesh color wherever bare; the rest was in shaded gold. The lower marbles of the fireplace were black, and the upper ones were Sienna; the capitals and bases of the columns and pilasters were gilt, and the groundwork from which all the glittering decoration rose was white."
The house's
dower houseA dower house is usually a moderately large house on an estate which is occupied by the widow of the late owner. The widow, often known as the "dowager" usually moves into the dower house, from the larger family house, on the death of her husband, the new heir occupies the now vacated principal...
, known as
Little Holland HouseLittle Holland House was the dower house of Holland House in Kensington, England. The Henry Thoby Prinsep of the Prinsep family gained a 21-year lease on it from Henry Fox, 4th Baron Holland thanks to the painter George Frederic Watts, a friend of both the Hollands and the Prinseps...
, became the centre of a Victorian artistic
salonA salon is a gathering of intellectual, social, political, and cultural elites under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation...
presided over by the
PrinsepPrinsep may mean any of several notable members of the British Prinsep family.The family descended from John Prinsep, an 18th-century merchant who was the son of Rev. John Prinsep, rector of Saundby, Nottinghamshire, and Bicester, Oxfordshire...
s and the painter
George Frederic WattsGeorge Frederic Watts, OM was a popular English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life...
.
20th century and wartime destruction
Queen Elizabeth, The Queen MotherElizabeth Bowes-Lyon was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 1936 until 1952 as the wife of King George VI. After her husband's death, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
and
King George VIGeorge VI was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death...
attended the last great ball held at the house a few weeks before the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In September 1940, the building was badly hit during a ten hour bombing raid and largely destroyed. It passed into the ownership, with its grounds, of the local authority. Today the remains form a backdrop for the open air Holland Park Theatre, home of
Opera Holland ParkOpera Holland Park is a summer opera company which produces an annual season of opera performances staged under a temporary canopy in Holland Park, a public park in a wealthy district of west central London of the same name. The venue is fully covered but is open at the sides.The canopy was...
. The YHA (England and Wales) "London Holland Park" youth hostel is now located in the house.