Sir Walter Cope: The Man Who Sold Notting Hill

The Cecil insider

Sir Walter Cope was born around 1553 and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He came up through court service rather than inherited wealth. His career was made through one connection above all others. He served as private secretary and right-hand man to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who was Elizabeth I's chief minister and the most powerful man in late Tudor England outside the queen herself.

When Burghley died in 1598, Cope continued in the service of his son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who succeeded his father as the dominant political figure of the early Jacobean period. Cope was an inside man at the heart of the Cecil political machine, with access to land deals, court favours and royal grants that ordinary speculators could only dream of.

The string of profitable offices

Cope held a series of Crown positions, several of them lucrative sinecures rather than working roles. He was Chamberlain of the Exchequer from 1609. He was Master of the Court of Wards from 1612, a notoriously profitable position that allowed the holder to manage the estates of underage heirs and effectively skim from them. He was Public Registrar of recoveries in the Court of Common Pleas, which meant his name was attached to vast numbers of property transactions across England. He was knighted in 1603 by James I shortly after the king's accession, and was made a baronet in 1611, one of the first creations of that new rank.

Holland House

Cope's most visible legacy was the great country house he built for himself in Kensington. Around 1591 he acquired the manor of West Town in Kensington from Sir Walter Hastings. He spent several years and considerable money developing it. By 1605 he had completed a magnificent house called Cope Castle, soon renamed Holland House after his daughter Isabel married Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, in 1624.

Holland House became one of the great houses of London. It stood in 200 acres of grounds running from Kensington High Street up to what is now Holland Park Avenue. The estate gave its name to Holland Park, Holland Park Avenue, Holland Road and the entire Holland Park neighbourhood we know today. The house had a remarkable afterlife. Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it became a famous political and intellectual salon, hosting Charles James Fox, Lord Macaulay, Sheridan, Byron and later Disraeli. The Whig "Holland House set" gathered there for nearly two centuries.

The house was bombed during the Blitz in 1940, leaving only ruins. The grounds became Holland Park, opened to the public in 1952 and now one of West London's most loved green spaces. The remains of the east wing now house a youth hostel and the Holland Park Opera.

The Notting Barns connection

Cope's interest in property went beyond his own estate. He was a major dealer in West London land. After the death of his patron Burghley in 1598, the Manor of Notting Barns came onto the market. Burghley had held it through Crown grant. Cope acquired it, probably through his Cecil connections, and held it briefly before selling it on.

In 1601 Cope sold the Manor of Notting Barns to Sir Henry Anderson, Sheriff of London, for 3,400 pounds. This was a substantial sum at the time, and it gave Cope a profitable exit from a piece of property that did not fit his core Kensington interests. The Anderson family then held the manor for 164 years, through the period when the manorial system slowly dissolved and the land was eventually broken up and sold to the Talbots in 1755 and the Ladbrokes around the same time.

Without Cope's brokerage, the Anderson family might never have acquired Notting Barns. Without that 164-year Anderson tenure, the land might have been broken up earlier, or differently, with consequences for everything that came afterwards.

The Wonder Chamber

Cope had one charming side that has nothing to do with land deals. He kept a famous "wonder chamber" or cabinet of curiosities at Cope Castle, which was visited by the German traveller Thomas Platter in 1599. Platter recorded seeing African horns, a bird of paradise, an embalmed child, Native American artefacts and various other oddities. It was one of the earliest English collections of natural and ethnographic curiosities, a precursor to the Ashmolean and the British Museum. Cope was a serious antiquary as well as a property dealer.

Why Cope matters today

Cope is the figure who explains the underlying property geography of West London. The Holland estate to the south, the Notting Barns transactions to the north, the Cecil court favourite lineage that connects so many West London land deals. Cope sits at the centre of it all.

He is also a useful example of how Tudor and Jacobean wealth was actually made. Not through inheritance or trade but through proximity to royal power, official sinecures and shrewd land deals. The grand estates of West London were assembled by men like Cope who used their court connections to acquire, develop and trade property at a scale impossible for outsiders. The pattern they established lasted for centuries.

If you walk through Holland Park today, you are walking on land Walter Cope assembled four hundred years ago. If you walk down Portobello Road or Ladbroke Grove, you are crossing land that Cope sold to the Andersons in 1601, setting in motion the chain of ownership that would eventually create modern Notting Hill.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Sir Walter Cope?

Sir Walter Cope was an Elizabethan and Jacobean courtier, antiquary and property speculator who lived from around 1553 to 1614. He served as private secretary to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and held a series of profitable Crown offices including Chamberlain of the Exchequer and Master of the Court of Wards. He built Holland House in Kensington and was a major dealer in West London property.

What is Cope's connection to Notting Hill?

Cope acquired the Manor of Notting Barns after the death of his patron Lord Burghley in 1598, then sold it on in 1601 to Sir Henry Anderson, Sheriff of London, for 3,400 pounds. The Anderson family then held the manor for 164 years, until the land was broken up in the mid-1700s and sold in parcels to the Talbots and the Ladbrokes who developed modern Notting Hill.

Did Walter Cope build Holland House?

Yes. Cope acquired the manor of West Town in Kensington around 1591 and built a large country house called Cope Castle, completed by 1605. The house was renamed Holland House after his daughter Isabel married Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, in 1624. The estate gave its name to Holland Park, Holland Park Avenue and the Holland Park neighbourhood.

What happened to Holland House?

Holland House became a famous political and intellectual salon in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, hosting Charles James Fox, Lord Macaulay, Byron and Disraeli among many others. The house was bombed during the Blitz in 1940 and largely destroyed. The grounds became Holland Park, opened to the public in 1952. The remains of the east wing now house a youth hostel and the Holland Park Opera.

What was Cope's Wonder Chamber?

Cope kept a famous cabinet of curiosities at Cope Castle, visited by the German traveller Thomas Platter in 1599. The collection included African horns, a bird of paradise, an embalmed child and Native American artefacts. It was one of the earliest English collections of natural and ethnographic curiosities, a precursor to museums such as the Ashmolean and the British Museum.

Walk Notting Hill's Tudor and Carnival history together

From Walter Cope's land deals to the birth of Carnival, our special Whose Hill walk traces four centuries of Notting Hill history. Part of the Notting Hill Carnival 60 celebrations.

Special Carnival 60 offer: £10 per person

More info: nottinghillcarnival60.co.uk/walks

Book here: Eventbrite

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