Houghton Hall

Houghton Hall ( /ˈhaʊtən/ HOW-tən) is a country house in Norfolk, England. It was built for the de facto first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and it is a key building in the history of Palladian architecture in England. It is a Grade I listed building surrounded by 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of parkland adjacent to Sandringham House.

Those who most influenced the initial development of plans and construction at Houghton were:

• Colen Campbell, who began the building (1722)
• James Gibbs, who added the domes
• William Kent, who designed the interiors (circa 1725-1735).
• Thomas Ripley, Kent's rival, supervised much of the building work

The house has a rectangular main block which consists of a rustic basement at ground level, with a piano nobile, bedroom floor and attics above. There are also two lower flanking wings joined to the main block by colonnades. To the south of the house there is a detached quadrangular stable block.

The exterior is both grand and restrained, constructed of fine-grained, silver-white stone the Gibbs-designed domes punctuate each corner. In line with Palladian conventions, the interiors are much more colourful, exuberant and opulent than the exteriors.

The parklands surrounding Houghton was redesigned in the 18th-century by Charles Bridgeman.