Wollaton Hall

Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall in the snow, November 2010
General information
Coordinates	52°56′52″N 1°12′35″W / 52.947880°N 1.2095947°W / 52.947880; -1.2095947
Construction started	1580
Completed	1588
Client	Sir Francis Willoughby
Owner	Nottingham City Council
Design and construction
Architect	Robert Smythson
Designations	Grade I listed building

Coordinates: 52°56′53″N 1°12′35″W / 52.947974°N 1.209642°W / 52.947974; -1.209642

Wollaton Hall is an Elizabethan country house of the 1580s standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England. The house is now Nottingham Natural History Museum, with Nottingham Industrial Museum in the out-buildings. The surrounding parkland has a herd of deer, and is regularly used for large-scale outdoor events such as rock concerts, sporting events and festivals.

Wollaton is a classic prodigy house, "the architectural sensation of its age", though its builder was not a leading courtier and its construction stretched the resources he mainly obtained from coalmining; the original family home was at the bottom of the hill. Though much re-modelled inside, the "startlingly bold" exterior remains largely intact.

Wollaton Hall was built between 1580 and 1588 for Sir Francis Willoughby and is believed to be designed by the Elizabethan architect, Robert Smythson, who had by then completed Longleat, and was to go on to design Hardwick Hall. The general plan of Wollaton is comparable to these, and was widely adopted for other houses, but the exuberant decoration of Wollaton is distinctive, and it is possible that Willoughby played some part in creating it. The style is an advanced Elizabethan with early Jacobean elements.