Hill Hall And Attached Service Wings To North And West

Hill Hall and Attached Service Wings to North and West

A country house now vacant, built between 1569 and 1575 for Sir Thomas Smith, probably to his own design, with assistance from Richard Kirby, whom Smith described as his "cheefe Architecte, overseer and Master of my workes". The house has undergone significant alterations and additions throughout its history: circa 1714 alterations for Sir Edward Smith; gardens altered by Humphry Repton between 1790 and 1814 (Red Book dated 1791); further alterations in 1844 and circa 1890; major alterations between 1909 and 1912 by Reginald Blomfield for tenant Charles Hunter; gardens altered by Philip Tilden for Sir Robert and Lady Hudson in 1927–28; conversion to an open prison in 1952; and severe fire damage in 1969. The building is constructed of brick with rendered terracotta and cut-brick dressings, arranged on a courtyard plan with service wings to the north and west forming two sides of the service courtyard.

The north entrance front consists of two storeys and partly cellared accommodation. It is substantially 16th century in character, with a seven-window front arranged in 1:3:3 bays, prominent chimney stacks (upper parts altered circa 1714), mullioned and transomed windows, and a four-centred entrance arch beneath a single-storey tetrastyle Tuscan portico dated 1789. An eaves cove was introduced circa 1950 and reconstructed in 1982. The east front was rebuilt circa 1714 as a nine-window front arranged 1:7:1, with a projecting seven-window central section of two storeys topped with a 19th-century balustraded parapet, flanked by recessed three-storey corner towers. The central section features four reused 16th-century giant Doric half-columns and a pediment bearing a coat-of-arms over the central three windows, with a central pedimented doorcase by Blomfield. The south front displays two storeys with attic and cellars in a nine-window arrangement of 1:6:1:1, with three-storey projecting towers at positions one and eight, each supported by heavy entablature on giant Doric half-columns. Prominent chimney stacks and windows with Gibbs surrounds date from circa 1714. The west front is irregular, presenting two storeys with a central canted bay; the northern half was rebuilt in 1844, the southern half is 16th century and remodelled in 1844 with a massive kitchen chimney stack and a single-storey addition circa 1890. The courtyard elevations are substantially 16th century, two storeys with superimposed Doric and Ionic orders, altered in detail from circa 1714 onwards. Windows are mullioned and transomed except on the ground floor of the south range where sashes were inserted into an open arcade circa 1714. A four-centred entrance doorway in the north range is flanked by columns supporting a pediment.

The interior contains notable features throughout. The north range preserves wall-paintings of circa 1570 depicting the story of Cupid and Psyche, scenes from the life of King Hezekiah, a contemporary aedicule chimney-piece, and traces of several other chimney-pieces. Sixteenth-century brick floors survive, along with a reused 17th-century oak staircase with turned balusters. The east range contains several marble chimney-pieces by Blomfield and traces of 16th-century aedicule chimney-pieces. The south range contains the hall with a 16th-century aedicule chimney-piece decorated with family coats-of-arms, and the kitchen contains two large fireplaces. The west range retains a repositioned circa 1740 chimney-piece, 16th-century tiled floors, and the base of a 16th-century aedicule chimney-piece. A 16th-century cellar was discovered during excavation.

The west service wing was built between 1576 and 1581 with 18th-century and later alterations. Its south front contains nine windows arranged 2:4:3, comprising four two-light casements with a tripartite glazed door to the left and a door with two similar casements to the right; above are seven similar casements and to the left two 20th-century cross casements; above again are seven hipped dormer windows. The gabled west front has a single five-light casement to each floor. The north front is very irregular and heavily altered, featuring a canted 16th-century stair tower with a small Tudor arched window to each floor. The north service wing was added by Blomfield and comprises a two-storey three-window range and a single-storey range beyond. Its east front features two four-light and one two-light chamfered mullion windows, with three-light windows flanked by two-light similar windows all within a projecting wing. The west front to the service courtyard has a three-window section with two-light casements and an irregular single-storey wing beyond.

Hill Hall represents a landmark in the introduction of Renaissance forms into English architecture. Its builder, Sir Thomas Smith, served as Secretary of State to Elizabeth I, ambassador to France, and was a man of wide intellectual interests. The house is particularly significant for the precocious classical treatment of its elevations and internal features and for its celebrated cycle of contemporary wall paintings, which have been described as the most important survival of Elizabethan decorative figure painting in England.