The Friends of Holland Park

The Families of Holland House For 350 years successive owners of Holland House in Kensington were at the heart of political, social and literary life in London until the house was bombed during the Second World War. The Cope and Rich families (the Earls of Holland and Warwick) were the owners from 1604 to 1721 and the Fox and Fox-Strangway families (Barons Holland and the Earls of Ilchester) from 1746 - 1952. These influential and interesting figures of London society and beyond, and their guests, are the cast of Carolyn Starren's carefully researched and fascinating account of the life and times of Holland House. Author biog Born and educated in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, Carolyn Starren was Local Studies Librarian from 1990 to 2000. She now runs her own research company specialising in West London local history, gives regular talks, helps to mount exhibitions and is editor of the Chelsea Society Annual Report. Recent work includes content provision for several websites including the Royal Borough's Virtual Museum and On Public View: a Journey around the Sculptures in the Royal Borough, and the history pages on My Earls Court. She wrote The Kensington Book and with the late Barbara Denny co-authored Kensington Past and Kensington and Chelsea in Old Photographs.