| South Front
Hall Place’s southern extension is of red brick, laid in English bond and dressed with limestone. The ground floor retains many of its early windows set into rounded brick arches. |
 |
 |
Tower
Recent restoration has opened up the central courtyard. On entering the view is dominated by the Bell Tower. The bell that originally hung in the Tower can be seen in the Introduction Gallery along with its leading. The Tower is topped by a prospect room, now only accessible from the roof. During the seventeenth century a prospect tower was a fashionable addition, used to watch the hunt and to entertain. |
|
Introduction Gallery
Entering to the left of the courtyard you will find the introduction gallery. Here visitors can explore the history of the house and learn about the families who have made Hall Place their home over the past 500 years. Objects on display include the bell from the Tower, a stone gargoyle from inside the Tudor walls and some of Lady Limerick's furniture.
|
 |
|
Parlour
The Parlour is part of the Tudor house dating from 1537. Originally linked to the Great Hall via a door in the east wall it was the first of the Champneys’ private chambers.
|
 |
 |
Chapel
The Chapel’s central feature is its Gothic window. As private worship declined and the Chapel became less important the upper floor level was lowered cutting off the top of the Chapel window.
The wainscoting on the south wall is a rare example of authentic sixteenth century panelling within the house. A wooden beam with traces of original paintwork marks the point where the Chapel, and Sir John Champneys original building, ended.
|
|
The Great Hall
In Sir John Champneys time the Great Hall was entered via a porch near the site of the current doorway from the central hallway. Visitors would find themselves in the screens-passage. The Great Hall’s high status end is marked by the farthest bay window, originally a single ‘oriel’ window. Maitland Dashwood made many renovations in the Victorian Period. It was probably at this time that the panelling in the Hall was added.
|
 |
|
Tudor Kitchen
The patchwork of blocked up windows and irregular brickwork within the Kitchen’s walls show the considerable changes that have been made here. It is likely that the Kitchen began as a shorter space, double the height it is now. The form of this wing began to change as early as the 1580s when Justinian Champneys extended it.
|
 |
 |
Minstrels’ Gallery
Like the Kitchen wing the Gallery has undergone considerable change. Adjacent to the Gallery’s current first floor entrance are two openings overlooking the Great Hall. These entrances suggest that the Gallery was once much larger. This upper level may originally have been accessed via an external two storey porch connected at the point of these redundant doorways. |
|
Great Chamber and Long Gallery
From the Tudor period onward the Great Chamber was a flexible social space used for significant occasions and entertainment or to accommodate important guests. The Great Chamber is dominated by its ceiling; this was created after 1649 as part of Robert Austen’s additions to the Tudor building. The ceiling is an attempt by a local craftsman to imitate an Inigo Jones beamed ceiling. Leading on from the Great Chamber the Long Gallery was added in the Elizabethan period by Justinian Champneys to provide views over the estate and to display paintings. The barrel ceiling in this room dates from the eighteenth century.
|
 |
