Little Holland House: An Introduction

Little Holland House: An Introduction

Little Holland House was designed, built and furnished by one remarkable man - Frank Reginald Dickinson (1874-1961). Inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, he had dreamed of the type of house that would meet their approval and, realising that on his wage he would never be able to afford to buy such a home, he determined to build his own. In his unpublished autobiography, Frank says that he wanted "a house with beautiful things inside, a house solid looking and not showy".

He came to Carshalton, lured by Ruskin's praise of this area, and managed to buy a plot of land "amidst fields of lavender, herbs and corn". Frank then started drawing up the plans for his "ideal house", studying the trade journals, consulting all the time with his fiance, Florence, as well as beginning to make the furniture for his future home - working at night in his parent's cellar on the enormous planks of pine and walnut he had bought. The first piece he finished was the coal-box in the corner of the dining area. By joining a Mutual Building Society, Frank eventually secured an interest-free sum of three hundred pounds some three years later, and obtained estimates against the specification and bill of quantities he had prepared. However, as even the quotations for the structural element were around six hundred pounds, he was compelled to take the whole project into his own hands, and also to borrow another hundred pounds from his elder brother.

In October 1902, with the services of a labourer and two of his brothers, one acting as clerk of works, Frank began to dig the foundations. The only other workman hired was a bricklayer. Within three months the main structure was finished, including the plumbing and plastering and the doors, door-frames, windows and stairs. From February 1903 Frank, together with Florence to assist, worked on the interior during week-ends and holidays to provide the bare essentials to be able to live there.

Finally on 28th March 1904 on their wedding night, Frank and Florence moved into the unfinished house, and spent their honeymoon sanding the window frames, cleaning and staining floors and making the house a home. As part of her devotion to Frank's vision of an 'Ideal House', Florence's savings, intended for her wedding trousseau, had been used to purchase the green Cumbrian slate Frank wanted to use for roofing the house, when Frank ran out of money. According to Frank, "our home became a centre for gatherings and festivities, country dancing, play acting, musical evenings and discussion groups". Frank was involved in many local societies and, after he had stopped work at the Doulton factory, raised money selling his paintings by holding art exhibitions here. Frank died in 1961. Florence remained in the house until 1972, when she moved to a nursing home nearby, and the house was put up for sale. The London Borough of Sutton bought and restored the house, opening it to the public in 1974.