hall (redirected from Meeting hall)

hall, a communicating passageway or, in medieval buildings, the large main room. In the feudal castle of N Europe it was a single apartment, and in it lord and retainers lounged, ate, and slept. From the hearth in its center the smoke rose to an outlet in the roof. At one end was the raised dais reserved for the master and those of his own rank. With developing amenities extra spaces were added for cooking and sleeping, and the hall advanced beyond its early rude and unfinished appearance. In English manor houses of the 14th and 15th cent. the characteristic great hall was covered by a fine open-timber roof, heated by one or more huge fireplaces, and lighted with lofty windows often arranged in deep, projecting bays. Westminster Hall, part of the ancient royal palace commenced in the 11th cent. and rebuilt in the 14th cent., was the most splendid. By the 17th cent., with the addition of drawing room, library, and bedrooms, the hall of the English house was no longer of great size and dominance. The English colleges of the Middle Ages and Renaissance also had halls or commons, chiefly for dining, that were architecturally similar to the baronial examples. Some were covered with fine fan vaults, others with timber roofs as at Christ Church, Oxford, perhaps the most splendid hall next to Westminster. The various guilds of N Europe had their halls, especially impressive in Flanders, e.g., the cloth halls at Bruges, Brussels, and Ypres. In Italy communal independence produced the remarkable series of local civic halls, often with imposing towers, as at Siena and Florence. The word hall came to be used in the title of many great English houses (Haddon Hall) and similarly in that of some Southern estates in the American colonies.

Bibliography

See J. A. Gotch, Growth of the English House (1909).

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hall

1. a room serving as an entry area within a house or building

2. a building for public meetings

3. the great house of an estate; manor

4. a large building or room used for assemblies, worship, concerts, dances, etc.

5. a residential building, esp in a university; hall of residence

6. 

a. a large room, esp for dining, in a college or university

b. a meal eaten in this room

7. the large room of a house, castle, etc.

8. US and Canadian a passage or corridor into which rooms open

9. Informal short for music hall

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Hall

1. Charles Martin. 1863--1914, US chemist: discovered the electrolytic process for producing aluminium

2. Sir John. 1824--1907, New Zealand statesman, born in England: prime minister of New Zealand (1879--82)

3. Sir Peter. born 1930, English stage director: director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1960--73) and of the National Theatre (1973--88)

4. (Margueritte) Radclyffe. 1883--1943, British novelist and poet. Her frank treatment of a lesbian theme in the novel The Well of Loneliness (1928) led to an obscenity trial