Walter Cope was born near Banbury in Oxfordshire in c1553. In 1602, his patron Robert Cecil asked Cope to help him entertain Elizabeth I and on a later occasion, Cope provided the queen with a Banbury cake, two cheeses and four gallons of cherry brandy.

By 1610, Sir Walter Cope was a favourite of James I and had acquired the manors of St Mary Abbot’s, Earl’s Court, West Towne and Knotting Barns (Notting Hill). He built a new house, Cope’s Castle, later adding two wings designed by John Thorpe. After Sir Walter’s death, his widow remarried and the property reverted to his daughter Isabel, wife of Sir Henry Rich, later Baron Kensington and 1st Earl Holland. Sir Henry renamed the house Holland House.

In 1649, Sir Henry was beheaded for being a Royalist and Holland House was confiscated before being reclaimed by 2nd Earl in 1655. By now the estate stretched to around 202 hectares and included a Wilderness to the north.

After the 3rd Earl’s death, his widow Charlotte married Joseph Addison, essayist, poet and founder of The Spectator magazine. After the 4th Earl’s death, the estate passed to a cousin William Edwards who was later created Lord Kensington.

In 1746, Henry Fox took a lease on Holland House. Fox commissioned William Kent and later Charles Hamilton of Painshill for advice on developing the landscape with Peter Collinson overseeing the planting. Fox was created Baron Holland of Foxley and in 1768 acquired Holland House by an Act of Parliament.

Holland visited Florence in 1793 where he met Elizabeth Vassall, at that time, Lady Webster, wife of Sir Godfrey Webster. She obtained a divorce and married Holland in 1797. In 1800, Holland was authorised to take the name of Vassall and signed himself Vassall Holland.

In 1803, Lord Holland sent dahlia seeds to his wife from Madrid and by the following year, they were flowering. Henry Charles Andrews visited Holland House in 1804 and painted a delicate and beautiful Dahlia pinnata for his book, Botanist’s Repository.

Under the Slave Compensation Act of 1837, Lord Holland was compensated under three awards for slaves on his estates in Jamaica, which had come to him through his wife.

The 3rd Lord Holland and his wife updated the house and surrounding gardens – Holland House became the centre of a social, literary and political circle. However the estate gradually declined with Lady Holland only returning to live at Holland House at the end of her life.

In 1845, the 4th Lord and Lady Holland returned from Italy and started a programme of repairs and alterations to the house. After her husband’s death, Lady Holland funded her extravagant lifestyle by selling off land for development. She made the 5th Lord Ilchester, a distant cousin, her heir but by the time of her death in 1889, the House was in desperate need of repair. Lord and Lady Ilchester restored the house and developed the gardens into ‘one of the finest in England’.

In September 1940 Holland House was severely damaged by a bomb and after protracted negotations, the estate was sold to the London County Council.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea took over the site in 1986 and the area is now managed as a public park. The shell of part of the main house is currently used as a backdrop for open-air performances while the east wing was converted into a Youth Hostel in 1957.

To the north of the Belvedere (now the cafe) is a series of arches with the early 19th century Iris Garden with its circular pool and fountain designed by William Pye, a parterre on the west side of the house and the Dutch Garden with geometrical beds bordered by box [see above] – originally called the Portuguese Garden after a design by Lord Holland’s Portuguese librarian Buonauiti, it was renamed the Dutch Garden for political reasons. To the west of the Belvedere is a tarmac terraced area which was the site of Lady Holland’s Dahlia Garden before the dahlias were moved into the Dutch Garden.

The northern plantation, part of Hamilton’s design, has been built over.

The Kyoto Garden was created in 1991 as part of London’s Year of Japan festival and is situated on the site of an earlier Japanese garden made by the fifth Lord Ilchester.