At the time Wollaton Hall was built, it was an architectural sensation. A decadent Elizabethan palace that showed stark Tudor England how to embrace the excesses of the Renaissance, Wollaton boasts the most dramatic facade of any English house built in the 16th century. Owned by the Willoughby family for 345 years, Wollaton Hall is now a Natural History Museum and is known for featuring in the batman film The Dark Knight Rises as the exterior of Wayne Manor.

Key Facts about the House

Wollaton Hall is located in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England.

Completed in 1588, Wollaton Hall was designed by architect Robert Smythson and built for Sir Francis Willoughby.

Wollaton Hall opened to the public in 1926 and is home to Nottingham’s Natural History Museum.

History of the House

Wollaton Hall was built between 1580 and 1588 and the plans for the design were drawn up by architect Robert Smythson, who was heavily influenced by Dutch and German architecture. Smythson’s floor plan for Wollaton is said to be inspired by da Majano’s Villa Poggio Reale near Naples and de Lyra’s reconstruction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. Smythson’s creation was a monster of parterres and terraces, an experimental palace that set the bar for the Baroque designs that were to follow almost a century later.

The man of the house, Sir Francis Willoughby, made his fortune in Nottinghamshire Coal. Legend has it that Willoughby was an eccentric man, an exacting and temperamental tycoon who had a habit of paying his workers in carts of the black stuff. It took eight years to build Wollaton Hall, which is situated at the top of a small hill that overlooks Willoughby’s modest ancestral home. The material of choice for Wollaton was Ancaster stone from Lincolnshire and it is thought that the master masons who worked on the building were brought over from Italy.

The central hall at Wollaton is cavernous and features a painted ceiling and wall by Antonio Verrio, or possibly his assistant, Laguerre. Four towers guard each corner of the hall that rises to a glass-sided gallery where Nottinghamshire’s oldest pipe organ can be found. The organ is thought to have been made at the end of the 17th century by builder Gerard Smith. The belvedere that rises above the medieval, yet flamboyant, hall offers views across Wollaton’s five hundred acres of gardens and parkland, to the city beyond.

A fire at Wollaton in the early 17th century caused extensive damage to Smythson’s interiors. Under Lord Middleton, Wyatville was employed in 1801 to remodel Wollaton’s interiors in his Windsor Castle style, a task he undertook intermittently for the next thirty years. Wyatville’s central hall survives, featuring a classical stone screen and fake hammer-beam roof. Only one other room has been restored to the glory of the Wyatville design and that’s the Regency Dining Room, where visitors can enjoy a video of a former Wollaton housekeeper.

Other restored rooms include the kitchens, which have been fitted as a working Tudor kitchen using an inventory that dates to 1601 and the Regency Salon which is presented as it would have looked in 1862 when Lady Jane Middleton was still in residence. From the date it was completed in 1588 until the year 1811, Wollaton Hall passed down through generations of the Willoughby Family. By 1881, the current owner of Wollaton Hall, Digby Willoughby, 9th Baron Middleton, decided that the growing city of Nottingham had expanded too close to his property. Seeking a more countryside location, Baron Middleton moved out and let the house to tenants.

Following a period of vacancy, Wollaton Hall was sold to Nottingham Council in 1924 and opened to the public in 1926. The council transformed Wollaton Hall into a Natural History Museum, housing some three quarters of a million specimens related to zoology, botany and geology. The house is segmented into six main exhibition areas: the National Connections Gallery; Bird Gallery; Insect Gallery; Mineral Gallery; Africa Gallery and the Natural History Matters Gallery.

In 2007, Wollaton Hall reopened following a massive refurbishment, funded partly by the European Union Regional Development Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund. As part of the renovation, the gardens and deer park were also landscaped and modified. Now, Wollaton Hall Park is regularly used for large outdoor events like festivals and concerts and the exterior of the house has been used as a filming location for the Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.

What Makes Wollaton Hall Famous?

Wollaton Hall is famous for its flamboyant and imposing facade. An experimental and highly decorative Elizabethan mansion, Wollaton Hall was a sensation in its day. After spending nearly 350 years as the family home of the aristocratic Willoughby family , Wollaton Hall is now known for being Nottingham’s Natural History Museum and features reconstructed historical rooms.

Wollaton Hall in TV and Film

Heart of Chaos (2015)

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Crossroads (2001 TV series)

Treasure Hunt (1982)

Further Research

Sheila Strauss (1978) Short History of Wollaton and Wollaton Hall

Robert Cullen and Pamela Marshall (1999) Wollaton Hall and the Willoughby Family

Friedman (1988) House and Household in Elizabethan England: Wollaton Hall and the Willoughby Family

Visitors’ Information

Wollaton Hall and Natural History Museum is open to the public all year round. In high season, which runs from February to November, Wollaton Hall is open every day from 10am until 5pm. During low season, the hall and museum are open from Friday to Tuesday from 11am until 4pm. Entry is free, but there is a charge for tours.

Wollaton Hall is three miles west of Nottingham City Center. To travel to Wollaton Hall by train, go to Nottingham central train station and take a local bus from the city center. If traveling by car from Nottingham City Center, follow the brown tourist signs from the A52 or A6514 or if arriving via the M1, take junction 25 and follow the signs.