At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Finch family, one of the two important local families, bought up several pieces of land to make the Dollis Hill Estate. This included two farms, with the main farmhouse north of Dollis Hill Lane and the smaller one opposite it on the south. The farms around Willesden were well known for their hay, grown for the horses of London, and there were dairy farms producing milk.

Originally the estate lands were more extensive and a large 17th-century house, rebuilt in 1800, was used as Dollis Hill Farm.

In 1825 the family had enough money to replace the smaller farmhouse with a new house, named Dollis Hill House. Things did not go so well for them after 1850, when Henry Finch lost his lucrative post at the Royal Mint, so in 1861 they moved back into Dollis Hill Farm and rented Dollis Hill House to Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, who later became Lord Tweedmouth.

The farm halted as a working farm in the 1920s.

The Post Office Research Station was built in 1923 on part of the site of the Dollis Hill Farm.