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This essay reconsiders the significance of the domestic salon at Little Holland House in the broad sense of literary-aesthetic and socio-cultural development and transition in the mid-Victorian period. This essay argues that the salon was not a place for a private visit in the pursuit of friendship, but also a creative space as a hothouse of political and cultural agitation. Following the recent trend of research into the cultural value of the salon, this essay attempts to decipher the cultural value of Little Holland House salon. First, by examining the hostess Sara’s cultural identity, this essay explores how Sara offered the liberal and unconventional Victorian salon as a hothouse of aestheticism which provided agency to Victorian artists to develop their works. Subsequently, this essay moves to investigate the artistic and intellectual domestic activities at Little Holland House salon, such as debates on book illustrations between Pre-Raphaelites and Alfred Tennyson and Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographic performance, which mirrored new mid-Victorian cultural discourses, both verbally and visually. Although the home is often a private retreat from the world, this essay suggests that Victorian domestic salon at Little Holland House was a Harbermasian public sphere for a new spirit of art in the mid-nineteenth century.
