Decline and revival From the 15th century onwards, halls lost most of their traditional functions to more specialised rooms, first for family members and guests to the great chamber and parlours, withdrawing rooms, and later for servants who finally achieved their own servants hall to eat in and servants’ bedrooms in attics or basements). The halls of late 17th, 18th and 19th-century country houses and palaces usually functioned almost entirely as impressive entrance points to the house, and for large scale entertaining, as at Christmas, for dancing, or when a touring company of actors performed. With the arrival of ballrooms and dedicated music rooms in the largest houses by the late 17th century, these functions too were lost. There was a revival of the great hall concept in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with large halls used for banqueting and entertaining (but not as eating or sleeping places for servants) featuring in some houses of this period as part of a broader medieval revival, for example Thoresby Hall. In popular culture In the Harry Potter franchise of books, movies, and video games, the Great Hall within Hogwarts is the site of meals, feasts, assemblies, and awards ceremonies. Winchester Castle's Great Hall is an important site in British history; it was the location of the trial of Walter Raleigh and partially of the Bloody Assizes and it also contains a well-preserved imitative Arthurian Round Table. See also Manor house Tapestry Mead hall Moot hall Hall and parlor house Great room Notes External links Architecture in the United Kingdom Rooms Castle architecture