Aerial view

Hardwick Hall is an Elizabethan country house in England, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Built between 1590 and 1597 for the formidable Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect Robert Smythson, an exponent of the Renaissance style of architecture. Hardwick Hall is one of the earliest examples of the English interpretation of this style, which came into fashion having slowly spread from Florence. Its arrival in Britain coincided with the period when it was no longer necessary or legal to fortify a domestic dwelling.

Bess of Hardwick (c. 1527-1608) was the richest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I, and her house was conceived to be a conspicuous statement of her wealth and power. The windows are exceptionally large and numerous at a time when glass was a luxury. The Hall's chimneys are built into the internal walls of the structure, in order to give more scope for huge windows without weakening the exterior walls.

Hardwick Hall was the culmination of Smythson's first stylistic phase, even though his responsibility for the house must have been less comprehensive than at Wollaton. The plan of Hardwick is clearly derived from that of Worksop Manor, but the forms are simpler: a rectangular block with six projecting towers that rise above the main roof. Externally the detail is pared to a minimum, and the uncompromising severity of the great windows makes them very reminiscent of Perpendicular Gothic fenestration. These windows increase in height towards the top of the house, expressing the disposition of the great rooms, the high great chamber and the gallery, on the second floor.

The ingenuity of the planning, particularly of the two meandering staircases contrived behind symmetrical façades, is characteristic of Smythson, while the position of the hall, placed across the house and entered axially at one end, may also have been suggested by him. This marks an advance over Wollaton but was not to be maintained in subsequent houses. With the possible exceptions of chimney-pieces derived from Serlio and Vredeman de Vries, the architectural decoration is unlikely to be of Smythson's choosing, for he did not oversee the building work.

View the floor plans of Hardwick Hall.