Little Holland House
An Arts & Crafts ‘total work of art’ designed and largely hand-made by artist Frank R. Dickinson in the early 1900s. The house preserves its original interiors—furniture, carvings, metalwork and decoration—created to Ruskin and Morris ideals, offering a rare, intact look at a self-built artist’s home in suburban South London.
Opening Hours
What's not to miss inside?
Hand-Made Interiors
Dickinson designed and crafted the fixed woodwork, cupboards and seating as part of a unified interior.Run your eye along the tool marks and repeating motifs—pattern and joinery act like ‘architecture you can read’.
📍 Ground-floor rooms
Arts & Crafts Furniture & Metalwork
Chairs, tables, light fittings and fire irons were made to measure for the rooms they inhabit.Spot how hammered metal and carved oak share the same motifs—crafts designed to rhyme across materials.
📍 Parlour and dining room
Paintings & Decorative Panels
Dickinson’s paintings, inscriptions and stencilling weave moral and literary references into the fabric of the house.Look for Arts & Crafts mottoes and stylised plant forms—visual footnotes to Ruskin/Morris thinking.
📍 Stair hall and first-floor rooms
House as Gesamtkunstwerk
Conceived as a unified work—architecture, furniture, decoration and garden planned together.Compare room proportions to built-in pieces—they lock together like a puzzle designed by one hand.
📍 Whole property
Inspire your Friends
- Frank R. Dickinson designed and built the house in the early 20th century with minimal hired labour; he and his wife furnished it with his own carving, metalwork and textiles.
- Little Holland House is a rare suburban example of an intact Arts & Crafts artist-maker’s home, preserving both the building and the ensemble of original contents in situ.
- Design throughout the house shows clear influence from John Ruskin and William Morris—hand craftsmanship, honest materials and domestic beauty over showy ornament.
