Bolling Hall, situated close to the centre of Bradford, is a large, rambling stone house.
The oldest part of the building is a late-medieval tower, now used as the entrance, at the southern end of the garden front.
Many additions have been made to the house over the years but none of these were designed to harmonize with the earlier work and now Bolling Hall is a picturesque mixture of many different architectural styles.
The tower was built by a member of the Bolling family but at the end of the 15th century the rural estate passed to the Tempest family.
They built the hall, probably on the site of an earlier building, with a large mullioned and transomed window on the garden front. The contemporary heraldic glass from this window was removed in the 19th century but later re-instated.
In the late-16th century and early-17th century more alterations were made to the house including the re-building of the present kitchen block against the original tower.
In 1600 - 40 new bay-windowed rooms were added between the hall and tower. A second tower was also added to the north of the hall and the hall range was later widened and a symmetrical facade built to the west.
During the Civil War the house was a Royalist stronghold in the siege of Bradford.
In 1649 the Tempests sold Bolling Hall and the property then passed through several hands before being acquired by Charles Wood of Barnsley, a naval officer and an ancestor of the Marquesses of Halifax. He commissioned John Carr of York to create new reception rooms in 1779 - 80.
These rooms were lit by canted bay windows at the north end of the hall and the Drawing Room was given a splendid Adamesque ceiling.
During the Industrial Revolution Bradford began to grow rapidly and the Bolling Hall estate was sold off as building land.
The house was acquired by a local iron company who let it out to tenants for most of the 19th century.
In 1912 the building was presented to the local authority.
Bolling Hall became a museum and a fine collection of 16th and 17th century furniture was introduced into the rooms in the former service end. Recently the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council has restored the hall and 18th century reception rooms to their former appearance.
The fascinating furniture here includes a superb bed made for Harewood House by Thomas Chippendale. The walls of these rooms now display a changing selection of paintings from the Bradford Museum Service's collection with works by English artists, including Reynolds.
Outside the well-maintained building is a formal garden, created in the 20th century.
