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Holland House

Holland House
Holland House, 1896 by H. N. King, cropped and straightened.jpg
Holland House in 1896
Location London
Coordinates 51°30′9″N 0°12′19″W / 51.50250°N 0.20528°W / 51.50250; -0.20528
Built 1605
Built for Sir Walter Cope
Architectural style(s) Elizabethan, Jacobean
Owner Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated 29 Jul 1949
Reference no. 1267135
Holland House is located in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Holland House
Location of Holland House in London

Coordinates: 51°30′9″N 0°12′9″W / 51.50250°N 0.20250°W / 51.50250; -0.20250

Holland House, originally known as Cope Castle, was a great house in Kensington in London, situated in what is now Holland Park. Created in 1605 in the Elizabethan or Jacobean style for the diplomat Sir Walter Cope, the building later passed to the powerful Rich family, then the , under whose ownership it became a noted gathering-place for Whigs in the 19th century. The house was largely destroyed by German firebombing during the Blitz in 1940; today only the east wing and some ruins of the ground floor still remain.

Cope commissioned the house in 1604 from the architect John Thorpe. The building was of a common shape for large houses of the time, containing a centre block and two porches. The building received a large expansion between 1625 and 1635 at the direction of Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, Cope's son-in law and owner of the building, who added two wings and arcades.

In 1629, Rich commissioned Inigo Jones to design and the master mason Nicholas Stone to carve a pair of Portland stone piers, in order to support large wooden gates for the house. The piers, still extant, take the form of Doric columns on pedestals, and originally supported carved griffins bearing the arms of the Rich family and Cope family, symbolising the two families' union.


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