Description
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace on the Thames, about 12 miles southwest of central London: Tudor brick on one side, Baroque stone on the other, with gardens, a maze and centuries of royal drama inside. It was Henry VIII's favorite home.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey built it from 1514, and that was his mistake. Henry liked it rather too much. In 1529, sensing his enemies closing in, Wolsey gave it to the King, to try to save himself. He died the following year.
Henry quadrupled the kitchens to feed a court of over a thousand, and added the Great Hall in the 1530s, under a carved hammerbeam roof. On its walls hang the Abraham tapestries. The Tudor kitchens still show their roasting hearths, and the Chapel Royal has a magnificent timber ceiling and an oak altarpiece carved by Grinling Gibbons.
Across the Base Court stands Anne Boleyn's Gate, with its astronomical clock of 1540. In the palace Jane Seymour gave birth to the heir, Edward, in 1537 and died two weeks later.
In 1541 Henry heard here of the adultery of Catherine Howard. Legend says she broke free and ran down what is now the Haunted Gallery, to beg for her life.
The palace has a second face. In the 1690s William III and Mary II wanted a Versailles of their own, and Christopher Wren pulled down part of the Tudor palace to build the Fountain Court and the new royal apartments.
The work stopped before it was finished, and the result is two palaces in one. William died in 1702 after a fall from his horse in the park.
The collections include 542 works from the Royal Collection. The best known is Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar, the most important work of art in the palace.
The gardens are the other half of the visit. The maze was planted for William III in the 1690s, in hornbeam. The Great Vine, planted in 1763, is one of the largest grapevines in the world.
The Long Water, a canal dug in 1662 under Charles II, copies the French style. The Royal Tennis Court, built in the 1530s, is the oldest real tennis court still in use.
Don't miss
• The Great Hall.
• The Tudor kitchens.
• The Chapel Royal.
• The maze.
• The Haunted Gallery.
Did you know?
• The astronomical clock of 1540 also shows high water at London Bridge: arriving by barge at low tide was dangerous.
• George III never set foot in the palace after he became king: his grandfather had once struck him there.
• The palace has been the set of films and series such as The Favourite and Bridgerton.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey built it from 1514, and that was his mistake. Henry liked it rather too much. In 1529, sensing his enemies closing in, Wolsey gave it to the King, to try to save himself. He died the following year.
Henry quadrupled the kitchens to feed a court of over a thousand, and added the Great Hall in the 1530s, under a carved hammerbeam roof. On its walls hang the Abraham tapestries. The Tudor kitchens still show their roasting hearths, and the Chapel Royal has a magnificent timber ceiling and an oak altarpiece carved by Grinling Gibbons.
Across the Base Court stands Anne Boleyn's Gate, with its astronomical clock of 1540. In the palace Jane Seymour gave birth to the heir, Edward, in 1537 and died two weeks later.
In 1541 Henry heard here of the adultery of Catherine Howard. Legend says she broke free and ran down what is now the Haunted Gallery, to beg for her life.
The palace has a second face. In the 1690s William III and Mary II wanted a Versailles of their own, and Christopher Wren pulled down part of the Tudor palace to build the Fountain Court and the new royal apartments.
The work stopped before it was finished, and the result is two palaces in one. William died in 1702 after a fall from his horse in the park.
The collections include 542 works from the Royal Collection. The best known is Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar, the most important work of art in the palace.
The gardens are the other half of the visit. The maze was planted for William III in the 1690s, in hornbeam. The Great Vine, planted in 1763, is one of the largest grapevines in the world.
The Long Water, a canal dug in 1662 under Charles II, copies the French style. The Royal Tennis Court, built in the 1530s, is the oldest real tennis court still in use.
Don't miss
• The Great Hall.
• The Tudor kitchens.
• The Chapel Royal.
• The maze.
• The Haunted Gallery.
Did you know?
• The astronomical clock of 1540 also shows high water at London Bridge: arriving by barge at low tide was dangerous.
• George III never set foot in the palace after he became king: his grandfather had once struck him there.
• The palace has been the set of films and series such as The Favourite and Bridgerton.