Hill Hall (Essex)

Hill Hall is an Elizabethan mansion located in Theydon Mount near Epping, Essex, England. Although owned by English Heritage, the building consists of many private apartments.^[1] It is a Grade I listed building.^[2]

The importance of Hill Hall lies in two features. Firstly, it has some of the earliest classical decoration on any surviving building in Britain - the tiers of columns and friezes on the courtyard walls and the use of 'giant' column (that is, rising through two storeys) on the exterior facades. Secondly, the 1969 fire destroyed most of the interiors but not, miraculously, a series of wall paintings on the first floor completed more or less when the house was built in the late 16th century. There are an unusual survival of classically inspired mural paintings.^[3]