Today’s Holland Street was originally part of a street called Gravel Lane.
George Cunningham in his survey of London’s streets, buildings and monuments gave an explanation for the name Holland Street, saying that is was the “location of the old moated Manor House of Paris Garden, subsequently notorious under the name of Holland’s Leaguer, from Holland, a procuress (an early name for a “woman who procures prostitutes”), who occupied it in Charles I’s time. The old Manor House was a favourite resort of James I and his Court, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham and the nobility generally.”
Holland was Sarah, also known as Elizabeth Holland who in 1631 had been charged as an “incontinent women” and imprisoned in Newgate. The Manor House was very suitable for her needs as she said it was “near the theatres and baiting rings, with their wild beasts and gladiators”.
In 1630, as Madame Holland, had opened her first-class brothel establishment Hollands Leaguer, on the site now covered by Hopton Street and Holland Street. The brothel was surrounded by a moat, gatehouse and drawbridge with pleasant walks alongside trees and shrubberies in what was once Paris Gardens House; covering the area now known as Paris Gardens.
Holland Street’s name became applied to Hopton Street as well before the latter was renamed after the almshouses which lay along it.
