Hall'S Croft And Attached Garden Wall

Hall's Croft and Attached Garden Wall

A town house, now a museum and club, with an attached garden wall. The main building dates to the early 16th century with a circa 1600 addition to the right, followed by 19th and 20th century alterations and restorations in the 1920s and 1950s.

The structure is timber-framed with plaster infill, set on a coursed rubble plinth, with a tile roof and stone and brick stacks. It follows a 3-unit plus cross-wing plan, rising 2 storeys with an attic, and extends 4 windows across the front. The left half features a jettied first floor with 2 gables, while the right half has a gable to the right. The entrance, positioned left of centre, is a studded and battened door with an overlight. The fenestration includes a 4-light wooden-mullioned window to the left of the entrance and a small 2-light window to the right. The right end displays a 2-storey canted bay window with dentilled cornice and 1:3:1-light windows. The first floor has a 3-light ovolo-mullioned window flanked by 4-light windows and a 2-light window to the right, with 3-light windows in the left gables. A large cross-axial stack features 4 clustered and attached brick shafts. The left end displays close studding with square framing to the first floor, while the right end has storey-height posts with a middle rail. The building has 20th century timber gutters, lead rainwater heads and downspouts.

The right return contains a single-storey addition with a flat-roofed projection to the front, featuring an entrance with a battened door. This return has segmental-headed windows with 8:16:8-pane sashes and a 2-storey timber-framed wing to the rear, with an entrance having a studded and battened door with strap hinges. The rear elevation shows the right end matching the front, with varied mullioned fenestration. The wing to the left has storey-height posts. A re-entrant block has a gable to each side and paired mullioned windows, with an entrance to the angle fitted with a plank door. A large axial stack is positioned at the left end, and a stack with diagonal brick shafts stands to the left of the right end gable.

The interior features heavy chamfered beams and joists, with flagged floors to the ground floor. The hall contains a stone fireplace with a Tudor arch in a square-headed architrave and a battened door to an adjoining room, which has a similar fireplace. The room to the right end has a stone fireplace and 17th century panelling with an entablature. An open-well staircase to the rear wing has simply turned balusters, a dentilled handrail and string, and square baluster-form newels with finials. The rear kitchen has a large elliptical-headed fireplace with a fan-spit and battened doors. The first floor includes a right end room with a barrel vaulted ceiling and a Tudor-arched fireplace, and a room to the left, formerly possibly divided into three rooms, containing 2 similar fireplaces.

The attached garden wall extends approximately 43.5 metres to the left along Old Town, constructed of coursed rubble with brick coping and paired gates with timber gatepiers attached to the house at its right end.

Hall's Croft was the home of John Hall (1575–1635), an eminent local physician, and his wife Susanna Shakespeare (1583–1649), from their marriage in 1607 until they moved to New Place following William Shakespeare's death in 1616. The building was purchased by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1949 and opened to the public, with part of it now used by the Festival Club.