Longleat House

Much of the difference between Longleat House and its predecessors may be attributed to its designer, Robert Symthson (1535-1614). The plan was developed around a central grand stairway with two enclosed courtyards on either side of it. The symmetrical elevations were laid out exactly north, south, east and west and are complemented by a formal garden. In the handling of its fenestration, skyline, and placement on the site, we are, almost for the first time in domestic architecture, looking at a designed building in which all the problems were solved on paper before a single brick was laid. Not until the turn of the century was this to become the common practice for even later buildings show the influence of on-the-spot decisions in design.