Houghton Hall Norfolk
Houghton Hall in northwest Norfolk is one of the finest and most complete Palladian country houses in England, built in the 1720s for Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first and longest-serving Prime Minister, by the architects Colen Campbell and James Gibbs and subsequently furnished by William Kent with some of the finest baroque interior decoration and furniture in any English house. The house is the seat of the Cholmondeley family, who inherited it from the Walpole line, and the combination of the extraordinary interior quality, the current Marquess's exceptional collection of contemporary sculpture in the park and the model village make Houghton one of the most distinguished and most rewarding English country house experiences available.
The Stone Hall at the centre of the house, designed by William Kent and carved by John Michael Rysbrack, is one of the finest baroque interior spaces in England, its carved marble chimneypiece, the ceiling decoration and the quality of the craftsmanship throughout representing the work of the finest craftsmen available to the wealthiest politician in early Georgian England. The state apartments contain furniture and paintings of the highest quality, including works by Van Dyck, Rubens and other masters of the collection that Walpole assembled.
The contemporary sculpture collection in the park, assembled by the current Marquess, provides one of the finest collections of contemporary sculpture in any English country house setting, works by Richard Long, James Turrell, Rachel Whiteread and many others placed in the parkland in a programme of considerable curatorial ambition.