Hampton Court
 Castles |  Royal Britain |
Nearest railway station: London Waterloo to Hampton Court. The Palace is a 2-minute walk across the bridge from the station. The train service passes through Wimbledon station, where the London Underground District Line begins. Hampton Court is in Travel Zone 6. Address: Hampton Court Palace East Molesey Surrey KT8 9AU.
In a lovely park, bordered by the River Thames, stands the magnificent Hampton Court Palace, a sprawling red-brick ensemble located some 13 miles south-west of central London, the finest of England's royal abodes.
The palace was, essentially, the creation of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1475-1530), who acquired the manor from the Knights Hospitaller. It was not originally intended as a royal palace but as Wolsey's riverside country house, albeit one of considerable luxury; the cardinal himself inspired the building's main plan and its construction began in 1514. Cardinal Wolsey, simultaneously a cardinal, Archbishop of York and Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, was, after the king, the most powerful man in England and the last, and perhaps the greatest, English ecclesiastic to rule in the mediaeval tradition.Wolsey amassed enormous wealth from the many benefices held and indulged in his passion for building, living in great pomp, of which Henry increasingly grew envious. When the cardinal was unable to persuade the pope to allow Henry to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, he fell rapidly from royal favour and in attempting to redeem himself in Henry's eyes, offered up Hampton Court to the king in 1525. Wolsey died 5 years later whilst making his way to London to face trial for treason.
It is with Henry VIII that Hampton Court Palace has become most strongly associated, and was indeed the king's favourite country home; Henry lived at Hampton Palace quite extensively, as did his queens. Henry instigated a programme of rebuilding, which included the wonderful State Apartments. Incorporated within these apartments is the Great Hall, built between 1532-5, with its glorious double hammer beamed ceiling and a stained-glass window depicting the king flanked by the coats of arms of his six wives. Other rewarding Tudor additions are the King's Apartments, remodelled by William III in the 17th century; the vast and enchanting kitchens, large enough to cater for a household of 600 palace staff; the great gatehouse and Anne Boleyn's Gatehouse, an excellent example of Tudor brickwork surmounted by a splendid astronomical clock created by Henry in 1540.
Henry enthusiastically played Royal Tennis, a very different game from modern lawn tennis, and still played as 'real' tennis in the enclosed court adjoining the palace. The king also jousted in the Tudor tiltyards where the walled Tiltyard Rose Gardens are now situated. Five of Henry's wives lived at Hampton Court and the ghosts of two of them, Jane Seymour and Catherine Howard, are said to haunt the rambling palace. Edward VI, the son of Jane Seymour, was born here in 1537, while his two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, along with the early Stuarts, resided at the palace in fine weather or when the plague was rife in London.
In the second half of the 17th century Charles II (1660-85) laid out the gardens, inspired by what he had seen at Versailles. However, the restoration of the gardens today reflect the layout of 1702, designed largely by William III and Mary II, Britain's only joint monarchs; this included the famously tricky yew-hedge Maze, created in 1702. In fact, the 50 acres of gardens bear the imprint of Tudor, Stuart and Orange monarchs, their designers and great gardeners. The principal facades overlooking the gardens were also remodelled during William's reign (1688-1702), when Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to enlarge and improve the building; disliking their Whitehall residence, William and Mary decided in the 1680's to develop the Hampton Court complex as their home.
The last period of royal involvement and building at Hampton occurred during the reign of George II (1727-60), the last monarch to reside at the palace. The Queen's Apartments were completed in 1732, but after 1737 royal occupation of the palace ceased. 1750 witnessed the first bridge access to Hampton Court, prior to this date, during its golden age, visitors to the palace always arrived by boat. In 1838, Queen Victoria (1837-1901) opened Hampton Court Palace to the public, retaining some accommodation for grace-and-favour residents.
Part of the Royal Collection is housed in the Renaissance Picture Gallery, which is crammed full of treasures, among them paintings by Tintoretto, Lotto, Titian, Cranach, Bruegal and Holbein. Andrea Montegna's colourful, heroic canvases depicting The Triumphs of Caesar, are housed in the Lower Orangery, which is located in the Privy Garden. The celebrated Great Vine was planted by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in 1768, and is noted for its black grapes, which are on sale annually at the palace; it is the oldest known vine in the world.