Holkham Hall

HOLKHAM HOLKHAM PARK TF 84SE

5/32 Holkham Hall

30.11.51 G.V. I Mansion. Begun 1734, published 1761, finished 1764, the seat of Thomas Coke, later First Earl of Leicester, Designed to reflect his taste as a Grand Tourist. By William Kent, executed and completed by Matthew Brettingham the Elder. Holkham gault brick of exceptional quality. Slate roofs. Central block with 4 wings divided by internal courtyards. Arranged as a Palladian villa on enlarged scale, with references in towered central block to Inigo Jones's Wilton House. N front: rusticated ground floor, 3 by pedimented central block with central Venetian window recessed under brick semi-circular arch; 2 pedimented windows. Two flanking bays and tower bays with similar Venetian window. Cornice, entablature recessed off ridge. Towers with external storey and hipped roofs. Stacks recessed off ridge. C19 plate glass to all windows on N Garden front (S) with rusticated ground floor. Central hexastyle Corinthian portico, entablature with pediment, with six round- headed windows, two pedimented windows either side and single Venetian window, without superimposed arch, to towers. The glazing bars on this front have been reinstated. At four comers two storey link blocks to four wings containing chapel, kitchen, guest wing and private family wing. Each wing has identical elevations: rusticated ground floor, 2 1/2 storey central block of 3 bays, 2 storey flanking blocks of one bay, each pedimented. Each has 4 prominent eaves stacks to central block and subsidiary stacks to flanking blocks.

Interior: the central block arranged as suite of rooms of parade on piano-nobile. Central Stone Hall, an evocation of the Vitruvian so-called Egyptian Hall and of the apsed and aisled antique basilica, with alabaster facings, a rich Ionic Order from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis, Rome; coffered cove and compartmented ceiling. To West the North Dining Room, the Sculpture gallery with Octagon rooms at N and S, and on axis with the Stone Hall the Drawing Room with a deep cofferet vault. Further Rooms of Parade to South.

Listing NGR: TF8841242870