Henry Holland

Henry Holland (born July 20, 1745, Fulham [now London], England—died June 17, 1806, Chelsea [now London]) was an English architect whose elegant, simple Neoclassicism contrasted with the more lavish Neoclassical style of his great contemporary Robert Adam.

Beginning as an assistant to his father, a successful builder, Holland later became the partner and son-in-law of the landscape architect Lancelot (“Capability”) Brown. Among his works in London were Brooks’s Club (1778). In 1783 the prince of Wales (the future George IV) joined the club and subsequently hired Holland to remodel Carlton House (from 1783; demolished 1826), the prince’s town residence. The prince encouraged Holland’s interest in French architecture and decoration, and Holland began to use French craftsmen on his projects. Work for the prince led to further aristocratic commissions for Holland.

At Brighton, Sussex, Holland built the Marine Pavilion (1787), an addition to an existing villa owned by the prince, connecting the two sections with a rotunda having a low dome and two wings of two stories each. This building, later called the Royal Pavilion, was rendered unrecognizable by William Porden’s addition (1808) and John Nash’s remodeling (c. 1822), both in what was a style derived from Islamic architecture in India.

Another of Holland’s relatively few projects was the remodeling of the Theatre Royal, also known as the Drury Lane Theatre (1794; burned 1809), commissioned by the dramatist and impresario Richard Brinsley Sheridan.