Little Holland House was the dower house

Dower house

On an estate, a dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the estate-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 if the heir is married, and upon his marriage if he...

 of Holland House in Kensington

Kensington

Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 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 north, Kensington is...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Henry Thoby Prinsep, a director of East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 and member of the Prinsep

Prinsep

Prinsep 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...

 family, gained a 21-year lease on it from Henry Fox, 4th Baron Holland

Henry Fox, 4th Baron Holland

Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland, of Holland, 4th Baron Holland, of Foxley, MP was briefly a British Whig politician and later an ambassador....

 thanks to the painter George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts

George 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...

, a friend of both the Hollands and the Prinseps. Watts, the Prinseps and Henry's sisters-in-law such as Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary themes....

 lived, worked and entertained here for 21 years, making it the centre of their salon

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

.

When the lease expired in 1871, the Prinseps moved out and the Hollands demolished the building. Thobey Prinsep then leased a large plot of land on Melbury Road (abutting the estate of Lord Leighton) from the Earl of Ilchester

Henry Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of Ilchester

Henry Edward Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of Ilchester PC , known as Henry Fox-Strangways until 1865, was a British peer and Liberal politician. He served as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms under William Ewart Gladstone between January and February 1874.-Background and...

, part of which he gave to Watts. On his plot, Watts had Frederick Cockerell build New Little Holland House, in which he lived from 1876 until his death in 1904.