Holland Park proper was one of my favorite places to hang out in London when I lived there, chiefly because it was a ten minute walk from my house. It was an enormous estate owned by the Earl of Holland, who used the house as his city residence and a center for entertainment until it was reduced to rubble by air raids in World War II. The estate (and the rubble) was then gifted to the city, who turned it into a pretty park, and wisely kept the ruins of the house as is.