The London Blitz Gallery

Holland House library after an air raid BB83_04456

HOLLAND HOUSE, Kensington, London. An interior view of the bombed library at Holland House with readers apparently choosing books regardless of the damage. Photographed in 1940. The House was heavily bombed during World War II and remained derelict until 1952 when parts of the remains were preserved.
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 Fox family, 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.
In 1940, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended the last great ball held at the house. A few weeks later, on 7 September, the German bombing raids on London that would come to be known as the Blitz began. During the night of 27 September, Holland House was hit by twenty-two incendiary bombs during a ten-hour raid. The house was largely destroyed, with only the east wing, and, miraculously, almost all of the library remaining undamaged. Surviving volumes included the sixteenth-century Boxer Codex.
Holland House was granted Grade I listed building status in 1949, under the auspices of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947; the Act sought to identify and preserve buildings of special historic importance, prompted by the damage caused by wartime bombing. The building remained a burned-out ruin until 1952, when its owner, Giles Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester, sold it to the London County Council (LCC). The remains of the building passed from the LCC to its successor, the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1965, and upon the dissolution of the GLC in 1986 to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Today, the remains of Holland House form a backdrop for the open air Holland Park Theatre, home of Opera Holland Park. The YHA (England and Wales) "London Holland Park" youth hostel is now located in the house. The Orangery is now an exhibition and function space, with the adjoining former Summer Ballroom now a restaurant, The Belvedere. The former ice house is now a gallery space

© Historic England Archive

London Pride, GWR poster, 1946

Poster produced for Great Western Railway (GWR) to promote rail travel to London. The poster shows a view across the Thames to the Houses of Parliament from the Albert Embankment on the south bank of the river. This poster was made in 1946, just after London had survived the Second World War and looked forward to the future with hope. Frank Mason's series of posters of London do not depict the damage inflicted by the Blitz, but instead show life going on as normal. Artwork by Frank Henry Mason, who was educated at HMS Conway and spent time at sea. He painted marine and coastal subjects and was involved in engineering and shipbuilding

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British Army Captain Chris Goddard, left, and Cpl Gary Fisher check out the Second

British Army Captain Chris Goddard, left, and Cpl Gary Fisher check out the Second World War German bomb they had just made safe on a building site beside Tower Bridge, London, Tuesday after it was found by construction workers. Police emptied neighbouring streets and evacuated homes as Army bomb disposal men worked for more than 30 hours to make safe the 2200 pound(1000 kg) device, dropped during the Blitz 1940- 41.
30 June 1987

© TopFoto