Wollaton Hall

Wollaton Hall is a country house, now a museum, built between 1580 and 1588 by the renowned architect Robert Smythson for Sir Francis Willoughby. The building underwent alterations in the late 17th century for Cassandra and Sir Thomas Willoughby, 1st Lord Middleton, and in the early 19th century by Sir Jeffry Wyatville for the 6th Lord Middleton. It was converted to a museum in 1925. The Hall is constructed of Ancaster limestone ashlar with lead roofs. It has a square plan with symmetrical fronts and projecting towers at each corner. A western service extension was added in 1823. At the heart of the building is a central two-storey hall topped by a prospect room.

The main building displays a classical order on each floor, with paired pilasters and an entablature. At first and second floor levels, the pilasters are separated by arched niches. The central tower, serving the Great Hall and Prospect Room, is of medieval revival character, featuring traceried windows and projecting corner bartizan turrets with ribbed stone roofs. On all sides, two-storey ranges have extruded corners to north and south, each single bay with paired angle pilasters topped by groups of four cylindrical ashlar classical chimney stacks. Three-storey square corner towers form banqueting rooms. A basement runs throughout, partly contained within the base of the lowest Doric order. Windows are mainly early 19th-century casements and sashes, introduced by Wyatville, set within 16th-century stone cross-mullions. The windows incorporate glazing bars and plain lights, with the plain lights and larger expanses of glass reserved for the grander rooms.

The north entrance front has five bays and features a straight flight of steps with square-turned balusters dating from around 1804. The central projecting bay is framed by single Doric columns and Ionic pilasters, with a round-arched recessed doorway and a scrolled elongated corbel keystone above supporting a projecting entablature. On either side is a heraldic shield, with a window above. The ornamented bay is finished with a raised balustrade with two small open aedicules topped with statuettes and a central aedicule. A carved panel at balustrade level depicts reclining figures embracing a cartouche. The Great Hall and Prospect Room section has four bays with two tiers of windows—those forming a clerestory to the Great Hall are of an attenuated traceried form, with additional secondary copper glazing added by Wyatville. Paired niches appear between the Great Hall windows. Windows to the Prospect Room are cross-mullioned with sashes.

The south front has a wide central projecting bay framed with paired Doric columns and Ionic pilasters. The ground floor window was altered in the early 19th century to create French doors. Above, within the base of the Ionic order, is a Latin inscription citing Sir Francis Willoughby and the date of construction of the Hall. The bay is finished with a raised balustrade topped with two figures from the Willoughby coat-of-arms—one of Hercules, one of a monk—two outer floral baskets, and a raised central cartouche. A double return staircase with turned balusters dates from around 1820 and is by Wyatville. Three paired openings with Doric colonettes lead to a basement skittle alley. The Great Hall and Prospect Room arrangement is similar to the north front, but the Great Hall windows do not have secondary glazing.

The east front has six bays plus towers, with regular fenestration and niches between the upper windows, and a balustrade. The Great Hall and Prospect Room have single windows, with that to the Great Hall supplemented with copper secondary glazing.

The west front has seven bays plus towers, with regular fenestration and less ornamentation. The ashlar walls are without classical orders. At lower ground level is the western service extension of 1823 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville, built in Hollington sandstone. This nine-bay, single-storey extension has a pair of outer service yards and has been altered in the 20th century. It features a central projecting porch and ends, with turned balusters to the parapet. The Great Hall and Prospect Room have single windows, with that to the Great Hall featuring copper secondary glazing. A lead-roofed porch from the west stair was added in the late 17th century.

The corner towers are finished with elaborate scrolled strapwork pediments with a centre gadrooned oculus and triangular pediment, each finished with a statuette and each corner finished with an obelisk. The towers are topped by groups of four attenuated flues in rendered brick, dating from around 1804 by Wyatville. At first and second floor levels of the corner towers and extruded corners, classical busts are set in circular niches with elaborate strapwork cartouche surrounds. The busts incorporate figures of Roman and Greek classical figures, both gods and scholars, and one portrait, that of Charles I.

All elevations are ornamented along the frieze of the Ionic and Corinthian orders with masks and heads, including native American Indians. Strapwork ornament appears on the plinth of the pilasters, and bull-rings are at the base of pilasters in the lowest Doric order. A balustraded parapet retains remains of raised strapwork ornamented aedicules.

The interior was restored after a fire in 1642 and remodelled by Wyatville from 1801.

The central hall features a screen designed by Robert Smythson, still in situ, with a screen passage and gallery over. Two round arches with Doric full columns and half-columns display carved strapwork ornament and reclining figures in the spandrels. The parapet, probably later, has strapwork ornament. On the gallery is a 17th-century organ which has been in situ from at least 1809. A continuous oak entablature runs along three walls, by Wyatville around 1832, continuing the design of the stone entablature to the screen. Below are plain plastered walls, above painted ashlar. An elaborate fake hammerbeam roof of 1580-88 by Smythson is complete with shields and tracery, repainted around 1804 by Wyatville and again around 1950. An oak-panelled ceiling dates from 1830. A stone fireplace, painted, with a coat-of-arms within a round cartouche, is by Smythson and was relocated by Wyatville around 1823. Pink diamond-set flags date from the 1580s. An 18th-century clock is set into the east wall within a 1580s strapwork surround, a former window. At first floor level are also mullioned windows with strapwork architrave serving the north and south stairs.

The front entrance hall, dating from around 1804 by Wyatville, has two segmental coffered alcoves with niches at each end, flanked by columns. A round-arched doorway to the central hall has a guilloche architrave.

The saloon on the south front, dating from around 1823, was created from the former dining room and garden stair and was restored in 1988. A Coade stone fireplace was relocated in 1988. The lozenge-panelled ceiling has a cornice and foliage frieze. Panelled double doors to the hall have an enriched surround. Opposing French windows have additional steel-plated sliding security doors, and the windows have cast-iron security shutters.

The north and south stairs are Imperial geometric staircases by Wyatville, around 1804, with lattice balustrades and identical Renaissance Revival joinery to both stairwells. The north stairwell has early 18th-century painted walls and ceiling depicting the story of Prometheus by Sir James Thornhill, an adapted ceiling painting by Laguerre. Doorcases at first floor level also form part of Thornhill's scheme. The south stairwell has a painted ceiling depicting the creation of Pandora, also by Thornhill. Both staircases contain elaborate carved doorcases from around 1700 and 1712, containing heraldic references to the Willoughby family.

The former library, dating from around 1823 and now a gallery, has paired alcoves and elaborate Rococo and Renaissance Revival joinery. Windows are oak-panelled lined. The cornice incorporates a frieze of the Willoughby owl.

The former west dining room, now a gallery, has an early 19th-century cornice and gesso plaster panels. A segmental alcove at the north end for a sideboard features carved twisted vine and corn sheaves.

On the first floor, paired bedrooms and dressing rooms from around 1804 are now galleries and offices. The north Great Chamber was restored in 1996.

The Prospect Room interior dates from around 1804 by Wyatville, with steel lattice beams added in the 1950s. A decorative Regency plaster ceiling has three panels and a bucrania frieze to the cornice. At the east and west ends, windows are flanked by niches with shell motifs. Four corner six-panel mahogany doors are present—those to the west are dummies, those to the east serve turret spiral stairs. On the roof, turret stairs terminate in arcaded balustrades. Window pelmets of timber and plaster with painted canvas trompe l'oeil swags of drapes date from around 1804. The floor construction is a "Chinese lattice" by Smythson, after Serlio.

The basements and cellars retain many original features, including a west stair with a massive square newel, a servery, a former west doorway, a kitchen to the north with groined vaulting and columns, a larder with groined vaulting and a central column, and a barrel-vaulted wine cellar. 19th-century features include an early 19th-century servants' dormitory, wine cellars, and kitchen fittings. There are extensive rock-cut 18th-century cellars and a rectangular cistern.

This building is one of the most important 16th-century houses in England.