Key Details

Overview

Grade II* listed Holland House is the only building in London designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage, the foremost Dutch architect of the 20th Century.

It was commissioned and built for Wm. H.Müller & Co - a Dutch company involved, inter alia, in shipping and ore mining in Spain and North Africa.

The building was erected during the First World War in 1916. An image of a ship, as shipping was the company's primary enterprise, is evident in the prow like granite sculpture by the Dutch artist J. Mendes da Costa in the Southeast corner of the building as well as in the vertical “sails” of the facade. Each floor has a cross-shaped lobby completely clad with mosaics and tiles of remarkably geometric design leading to the office areas.

The lobbies and the public areas are the result of the collaboration between the architect Berlage and the artist Bart Van Der Leck where the clearly expressed steel structure of the building combines with the beautiful stained glass windows and the wonderful glass lanterns.

Berlage terminated his working relationship with Wm. H. Müller & Co in 1919. The fit out works had not been completed and the Belgian Art Deco master Henri van de Velde took over the design of doors frames, the mahogany cladding and furniture. The beautiful panelled suites and meeting rooms on the first floor have been made from the mahogany stripped from one of Wm. H. Muller's ships from the early part of the century.

Landmark Plc occupies 4 floors of the building since 2007 following a comprehensive restoration of the listed common areas and refurbishment of the office areas.

Source: landmarkplc.com/holland.htm