Location | Norwich, UK |
---|---|
Type | Domestic history museum |
Founder | Leonard Bolingbroke |
Curator | Cathy Terry |
Website | museums |
Strangers' Hall is a Grade I listed building and museum of domestic history located in Norwich, UK. Throughout its 700-year history, Strangers' Hall has been the home to numerous Mayors of Norwich and has served both domestic and commercial functions. A courtyard house, the oldest part of the building is the 14th-century undercroft while further additions were made through to the 17th century by various merchants and mayors, most notably the Sotherton family, Francis Cock and Joseph Paine. The house ended up in the hands of the Roman Catholic church before being bought by Leonard Bolingbroke, who converted it into a folk museum at the start of the 20th century. He then gave the house to the city of Norwich, which has since run it as a museum of domestic history. Although other theories have been proposed regarding the origins of the name of the house, it is named after the Strangers, a group of Protestant refugees seeking political asylum from the Catholic Low Countries from 1565, some of whom lived in the hall.