Holland House

Holland House, built in 1605 for Sir Walter Cope and originally known as Cope Castle, was one of the first great houses built in Kensington, England. The 500 acre (2.0 km²) estate stretched from Holland Park Avenue to the current site of Earl's Court tube station. His son-in-law, Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland eventually inherited the house.

The Earl was beheaded for his Royalist activities during the Civil War and the house was then used as an army headquarters and regularly visited by Oliver Cromwell. After the war, it was owned by various members of the family, renamed Holland House and passed to the Edwardes family in 1721. Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland 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, the Earl of Ilchester.

Under the 3rd Lord Holland the house became noted as a glittering social, literary and political centre with many celebrated visitors such as Byron, Thomas Macaulay, Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott. The figure of the political and historical writer John Allen 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. [Brian Harrison (ed), (2004), "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", page 309, (Oxford University Press)] Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother and King George VI attended the last great ball held at the house a few weeks before the outbreak of World War II.

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 Park. The YHA "London Holland Park" youth hostel is now located in the house.

References