Views of the hall, room by room

This page indexes the surviving views of the building and its rooms. The set was assembled as a tour of the surroundings and of each room in turn, and it is ordered the way a visitor walks the building.

A pen and ink drawing of the timber-framed range and brick tower of Gainsborough Old Hall, seen from the street with a lamp post in the foreground. — **The hall from the south-west** *Pen and ink drawing* From the papers of the Friends of the Old Hall. Undated.

The buttery of the old hall, hams and onions hanging from the beams beside a black range and baskets of bread. — **The buttery** *Photograph* From the papers of the Friends of the Old Hall. Undated.

The kitchen of the old hall with its wide fireplace and timber roof. — **The medieval kitchen** *Photograph* From the papers of the Friends of the Old Hall. Undated.

One of the two great roasting fireplaces in the kitchen range. — **The kitchen fireplace** *Photograph* From the papers of the Friends of the Old Hall. Undated.

The kitchen views are the most useful of the set. A medieval kitchen with two roasting hearths of this size is a rare survival, and the photographs show the scale of the fireplaces better than a plan does. The buttery view is discussed on its own page.

The four frames here are the service end of the building and the exterior: three photographs and a pen-and-ink drawing. The papers that describe the rooms in words are indexed separately in the archive index.

How the sequence was arranged

The original tour followed the route a visitor walks: the exterior first, from the street and the churchyard side, then the great hall, then the service rooms at its lower end, then the tower and the upper chambers. That order is worth preserving even in a partial set, because it matches the logic of the building. The rooms make sense in sequence and very little sense in isolation.

Photographs of interiors in this period were taken on film, in low light, without the wide lenses that modern interior photography depends on. That is why the surviving frames are tightly composed and why the roof structure is almost never in shot. The limitation is worth knowing before concluding that something is missing from the record: often it was simply impossible to photograph.

What the kitchen images show

Two roasting fireplaces in a single kitchen is the detail that makes this building unusual. Most surviving medieval kitchens have one, and one is enough for an ordinary household. Two implies catering at a scale that only makes sense for a family expecting to feed a visiting court, which is exactly what the Burghs built for.

The buttery photograph shows the room in its interpreted state, hung with provisions to demonstrate use rather than as an empty shell. That kind of display divides opinion among conservators, but for a room whose function is entirely invisible when empty it earns its place.

Questions about the photographs

Why is the roof structure never in shot?

Because the frames are tight. Interiors were shot on film in low light without the wide lenses modern interior photography depends on, so the camera could not get the span of a hall roof into a single frame from floor level.

Which room is hardest to read from a photograph?

The buttery. Its function is entirely invisible when the room is empty, so the frame is shown in its interpreted state, hung with provisions and not stripped bare.

Why does the tour start outside?

Because the building's scale is only legible from outside. Once you are in the great hall there is no vantage point from which the whole plan can be seen.

Can the rooms be photographed today?

The building is open to the public and photography policy is set by the body that manages it. The frames here are the historic sequence as the association's papers preserved it.