English Heritage opens rarely seen Elizabethan frescos at Hill Hall

"Hill Hall is a roughly 460-year old manor house in Theydon Mount near Epping. There was already a house here when the diplomat Sir Thomas Smith spent his second wife's fortune building a grand manor house on the same site. Despite its apparent grandeur, he wasn't a spendthrift, and construction was occasionally interrupted by his work overseas or, as a protestant, the need to keep a low profile during Queen Mary I's reign."

"What marked the house out was its heavy use of brick at a time when that was still unusual and double-height stone columns on the outside - possibly the first such examples in England. An inner courtyard features architecture that can be politely described as rather eclectic, as it seems the architects were trying to build in a classical style but didn't quite know how. But it keeps architectural historians delightfully busy as they try to figure it all out."

"The hall passed down the family line, but wasn't popular with its later owners, and was run down by the turn of the 20th century. It was then commandeered by the government as a prisoner of war camp, and also part of it was used as a maternity ward for pregnant mums living in London. It later became the UK's second open prison for women, but a fire in 1969 gutted most of the interior."

"Left in ruins for several years, it was finally rebuilt as a block of private flats, and would have remained just that if not for a remarkable survivor of the fire. A series of frescos survived. Only a fraction of the whole scheme, but still some of the best examples in England. As part of the restoration agreement, English Heritage maintain them, and can, on one day a month, take small groups in to have a look."

Hill Hall is a roughly 460-year-old manor house near Epping on the edge of London. A grand manor was built on the site by diplomat Sir Thomas Smith using his second wife’s fortune, with construction shaped by overseas work and the need for discretion during Queen Mary I’s reign. The house is notable for heavy brick use when brick was still uncommon and for double-height stone columns on the exterior. An inner courtyard shows an eclectic mix of classical attempts that has kept architectural historians busy. The property later fell into disrepair, served as a prisoner of war camp and maternity ward, and became a women’s open prison. A 1969 fire gutted most interiors, but surviving Elizabethan frescos were preserved and are viewable monthly by small groups under restoration agreements.

Read at ianVisits