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For other uses, see Hall (disambiguation).

The meanings attributed to the word hall have varied over the centuries, as social practices have changed. The word derives from the Old Teutonic (hallâ), where it is associated with the idea of covering or concealing. Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, is the hypothetical common ancestor ( Proto-language) of all the Germanic languages such as modern English In modern German it is Halle where it refers to a building but Saal where it refers to a large public room though the distinction is blurred:(Halle (Architektur) (de)). The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The latter may arise from a genitive form of the former. In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another The French salle is borrowed from the German. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people

Contents

Simple beginnings

In Old English, as it was brought into Britain in the fifth century, a hall is, fundamentally, a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini / Common Era. In 500, such a simple building was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Events By Place Europe Possible date for the Battle of Mons Badonicus: Romano-British and Celts defeat an Anglo-Saxon This is the kind of hall which Beowulf knew. Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between Even now, hall is the term used for a country house in midland and northern England. The English country house is generally accepted as a large House or Mansion, once in the ownership of an individual who also usually owned another Great England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland

The concept was more fundamental than referring to just domestic buildings. Though the lord's hall had an administrative aspect, this was more prominent in the town hall and the guild hall. A city hall or town hall is the chief administrative building of a City or Town 's administration and usually houses the city or The term might even be applied to a temple, in the same way as a basilica, now an ecclesiastical building, originated as a lordly reception hall with other domestic and other buildings close by in the same compound, just like an Anglo-Saxon moated hall but in a warmer climate. A temple (from the Latin word Templum) is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities such as prayer and sacrifice or analogous rites The Latin word basilica (derived from Greek, Basiliké Stoà, Royal Stoa) was originally used to describe a Roman In Military science, a compound is a type of Fortification made up of walls or fences surrounding several buildings in the center of a large piece of land For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south A moat is deep broad Trench, usually filled with Water, that surrounds a structure installation or town normally to provide it with a preliminary line of Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of Compare the Basilica in Trier. Trier (Trèves Luxembourgish: Tréier; Augusta Treverorum is a City in Germany on the banks of the Moselle River. (picture). Similarly, the French word salle can refer to a large, former church building such as the Salle Stengel de Lorentzen (fr) or to a sports hall (fr) large enough for playing hockey in. Hockey is any of a family of Sports in which two teams compete by trying to maneuver a Ball, or a hard round rubber or heavy plastic disc called a puck

A plan of a late medieval hall house called Horham Hall. Here, the screens passage has a porch at one end; the upper, dais, end has a grander window. The main staircase is at the dais end and photos show that the hall was the full height of the house.
A plan of a late medieval hall house called Horham Hall. Here, the screens passage has a porch at one end; the upper, dais, end has a grander window. The main staircase is at the dais end and photos show that the hall was the full height of the house.

Medieval developments

Later, partitions were set up so that the lord's family could have more privacy, a fairly new concept in northern Europe at the time. The English had come to Britain from a part of Europe which had not been directly exposed to the ways of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial As further time passed, the hall became the largest room of the house, often referred to as the great hall. A great hall was the main room of a royal Palace, a Nobleman 's Castle or a large Manor house in the Middle Ages, and While the humbler residents still slept there, the lord's family had one or more chambers at one end of the building in what came to be called the solar. The solar was a room in many English and French Medieval manor houses, Great houses and Castles In such houses the main room was known

At this stage, we have the hall house in which the central room is the great hall. A great hall was the main room of a royal Palace, a Nobleman 's Castle or a large Manor house in the Middle Ages, and Off one end is the solar while a partition divides the other end of the hall off as the screens passage. A great hall was the main room of a royal Palace, a Nobleman 's Castle or a large Manor house in the Middle Ages, and Across the passage lie the pantry and buttery with between them, a passage through to the kitchen. A pantry is a room where Food, provisions or dishes are stored and served in an ancillary capacity to the Kitchen. In the Middle Ages, a buttery was a storeroom for Liquor, the name being derived from the Latin and French words for Bottle or to For the Banana Yashimoto novel see Kitchen (novel A kitchen, is a room or part of a room (sometimes called "kitchen The function of the last had been removed from the hall for the convenience of both cooks and inhabitants but also because roasting fires were a serious fire risk. Kitchens were by this time, built of more fireproof materials in a separate building. These arrangements were well established by the fifteenth century. At some stage, one of these divisions was the parlour, a concept which was in secular use by 1374. Parlour (or parlor) from the French word parloir, from parler ("to speak" denotes an "audience chamber"

The Red Hall, Bourne, Lincolnshire. c. 1620
The Red Hall, Bourne, Lincolnshire. Bourne is a Market town on the western edge of the Fens, in southern Lincolnshire, England. c. 1620

Renaissance domesticity

During the sixteenth the process of subdivision proceeded. Notably, in an increasing number of cases, this was by inserting a floor, dividing the space which would have been occupied by the open hall in two, horizontally. From the early seventeenth century, the hall was usually a space inside the front door, more or less grand, in keeping with the grandeur of the house, in which people were first welcomed before proceeding to one of the partitioned rooms. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar The Red Hall in Bourne from about 1620 is still called a hall, but is designed not around a great hall but its staircase. Its hall, at the front door, has rather the nature of a passage leading to the featured staircase at the back of the house. The hall has a ceiling as low as any other in the house.

In a modern house, the hall is the space inside the front door from which the rooms are reached. Where this kind of hall is elongated, it may be called a passage, or hallway. The corresponding space upstairs is a landing.

Other aspects

In an early medieval building, as in the round Iron Age houses before them, the hall was where the fire was kept. This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. With time, its functions as dormitory, kitchen, parlour and so on were divided off to separate rooms or, in the case of he kitchen, a separate building. Dormitory typically refers in the United States to residence halls which are sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for For the Banana Yashimoto novel see Kitchen (novel A kitchen, is a room or part of a room (sometimes called "kitchen Parlour (or parlor) from the French word parloir, from parler ("to speak" denotes an "audience chamber"

University halls

On the same principle many buildings at colleges and universities are formally titled "So-and-so Hall". A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects Such a hall is typically named after the person who endowed it, for example, King's Hall, Cambridge. A financial endowment is a Transfer of Money or Property donated to an Institution, usually with the stipulation that it be invested King's Hall was once one of the constituent colleges of Cambridge, founded in 1317, the second after Peterhouse. Others, such as Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, commemorate respected people. Lady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens

Between these in age, Nassau Hall at Princeton University began as the single building of the then college, showing a continuation of the medieval European pattern in America. Nassau Hall (or Old Nassau) is the oldest building at Princeton University in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey ( USA) Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. College ( Latin collegium) is a term most often used today to denote an Educational Institution. The medieval universities had developed from colleges, that is groups of like-minded people living together in halls similar to the lordly ones described above and sleeping in carrels or separate rooms around the great hall.

In many cases, some aspect of this community remains in the modern institution. In biological terms a community is a group of interacting Organisms sharing an environment. At colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge for example, Hall is the dining hall for students, with High Table, on the dais at the high end, for fellows. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the At Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham colleges - and other more traditional academic institutions - High Table is a table for the use of Fellows Typically, at "Formal Hall", gowns are worn for dinner during the evening, whereas for "informal Hall" they are not. Formal Hall or Formal Meal is the traditional meal held at some of the older universities in the United Kingdom at which students dress in Formal attire Academic dress or academical dress is traditional Clothing for academic settings primarily tertiary and sometimes secondary

Livery companies

Many Livery Companies such as the Mercers in the City of London, have a Hall which serves as their headquarters and meeting place. The Worshipful Company of Mercers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. For London as a whole see the main article London. The City of London is a geographically In origin, this was just like the lordly hall with its great hall though the peripheral rooms would have their specialist uses as parlours and robing rooms for example.

Public halls

Similarly a hall is also a building consisting largely of a principal room, whether medieval like Westminster Hall or more modern like Carnegie Hall, used for various ceremonial, social or concert events. Carnegie Hall (generally ˌkɑrnɨgi ˈhɔːl is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east Most public halls of this sort are available for renting out for meetings and social affairs. It may be privately or government-owned, such as a function hall owned by one company used for weddings and cotillions (organized and run by the same company on a contractual basis) or a community hall available for rent to anyone.
Following a line of similar development:

Derived from the residential meanings of the word:

From a completely separate derivation:

  1. the medieval German town Schwäbisch Hall, where Hall was its whole name prior to 1933
  2. the Austrian town Hall in Tirol near Innsbruck, which used to be called Solbad Hall from 1938 to 1974,
  3. Hallstatt in Austria which gave its name to the Celtic Hallstatt culture. Schwäbisch Hall (or Hall for short is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg; it is the capital of the District of Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Hall in Tirol is a city in Tyrol, Austria. It is situated 10 km east of Innsbruck in the Innsbruck-Land district at, with a population of Innsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. Hallstatt, Upper Austria is a village in the Salzkammergut, a region in Austria. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich The Hallstatt culture was the predominant
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