Holkham Hall

Holkham Hall is a mansion begun in 1734, published in 1761, and finished in 1764. It served as the seat of Thomas Coke, later the First Earl of Leicester, and was designed to reflect his tastes as a Grand Tourist. The hall was designed by William Kent and executed and completed by Matthew Brettingham the Elder. It is constructed of exceptional quality gault brick with slate roofs. The building consists of a central block with four wings, each divided by internal courtyards. The design is that of a Palladian villa on a large scale, with references in the towered central block to Inigo Jones's Wilton House.

The north front has a rusticated ground floor and a three-bay, pedimented central block featuring a central Venetian window recessed under a brick semi-circular arch, and two flanking pedimented windows. Two further bays and tower bays have similar Venetian windows. The cornice and entablature are recessed from the ridge, and the towers incorporate an external storey with hipped roofs, with stacks recessed off the ridge. Nineteenth-century plate glass has been installed in all windows on the north garden front.

A central hexastyle Corinthian portico, with an entablature and pediment, features six round-headed windows, two pedimented windows to either side, and a single Venetian window without an superimposed arch in the towers, where the original glazing bars have been reinstated. Two-storey link blocks connect the main block to the four wings, which contain the chapel, kitchen, guest wing, and private family wing. Each wing has similar elevations, with a rusticated ground floor, a two-and-a-half-storey central block of three bays, and a two-storey flanking block of one bay, each pedimented. There are four prominent eaves stacks to the central block and subsidiary stacks to the flanking blocks.

Interiors of the central block are arranged as a suite of parade rooms on the piano-nobile. The central Stone Hall is evocative of the Vitruvian “Egyptian Hall” and an antique basilica, with alabaster facings, a rich Ionic order derived from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome, a coffered cove, and a compartmented ceiling. To the west lies the North Dining Room and the Sculpture Gallery with Octagonal rooms at the north and south. On axis with the Stone Hall is the Drawing Room, which has a deep cofferred vault. Further parade rooms are located to the south.