Hampton Court Palace
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Hampton Court Palace is a former royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west London, England. 1 The palace is located 11.7 miles south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames. It is open to the public as a major tourist attraction. The palace's Home Park is the site of the annual Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.
The Knights Hospitaller had operated a farm on the site since 1236. In 1505, the Lord Chamberlain, Sir Giles Daubeney, leased the property and used it to entertain Henry VII. King Henry VIII built 49 other places around England similar in style to Hampton Court. However, none remain today.
Thomas Wolsey, then Archbishop of York and Chief Minister to the King, took over the lease in 1514 and rebuilt the 14th-century manor house over the next seven years (1515–1521) to form the nucleus of the present palace. Wolsey spent lavishly to build the finest palace in England at Hampton Court, which he was later forced to give to Henry as he began to fall from favour.
The few remaining Tudor sections of Hampton Court, which were later overhauled and rebuilt by Henry VIII, suggest that Wolsey intended it as an ideal Renaissance cardinal's palace in the style of Italian architects such as il Filarete and Leonardo da Vinci: rectilinear symmetrical planning, grand apartments on a raised piano nobile, classical detailing. Jonathan Foyle has suggested (see link) that it is likely that Wolsey had been inspired by Paolo Cortese's De Cardinalatu, a manual for cardinals that included advice on palatial architecture, published in 1510. Planning elements of long-lost structures at Hampton Court appear to have been based on Renaissance geometrical programs, an Italian influence more subtle than the famous terracotta busts of Roman emperors by Giovanni da Maiano that survive in the great courtyard (illustration, right above).
The palace was appropriated by Wolsey's master, Henry VIII, in about 1525, although the Cardinal continued to live there until 1529. Henry added the Great Hall - which was the last medieval Great Hall built for the English monarchy - and the Royal Tennis Court, which was built and is still in use for the game of real tennis, not the present-day version of the game.
In 1604, the Palace was the site of King James I of England's meeting with representatives of the English Puritans, known as the Hampton Court Conference; while agreement with the Puritans was not reached, the meeting led to James's commissioning of the King James Version of the Bible.
During the reign of William and Mary, parts of Henry's additions were demolished, a new wing was added (partly under the supervision of Sir Christopher Wren), and the state apartments came into regular use. Half the Tudor palace was replaced in a campaign that lasted from 1689–1694. After the Queen died, William lost interest in the renovations, but it was in Hampton Court Park in 1702 that he fell from his horse, later dying from his injuries at Kensington Palace. In later reigns, the state rooms were neglected, but under George II and his queen, Caroline, further refurbishment took place, with architects such as William Kent employed to design new furnishings. The Queen's Private Apartments are open to the public and include her bathroom and bedroom.
From the reign of George III in 1760, monarchs tended to favour other London homes, and Hampton Court ceased to be a royal residence. Originally it housed 70 grace and favour residences – one of them was once home to Olave Baden-Powell, wife of the founder of the Scouting movement – but few now remain occupied. One of the warders at the palace in the mid-nineteenth century was Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.
In 1796, restoration work began in the Great Hall. In 1838, Queen Victoria completed the restoration and opened the palace to the public. A major fire in the King's Apartments in 1986 led to a new programme of restoration work that was completed in 1995.
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[edit] Ghosts
Queen Jane Seymour gave birth to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI at Hampton Court in 1537 and died there twelve days later, and her ghost is said to haunt the staircase in the Palace still. Queen Catherine Howard was arrested there in 1542 and is said to have run along the Long Gallery screaming for King Henry VIII to save her, before his guards caught her and dragged her away. A ghost is said to haunt the palace, sometimes screaming in the same hallway. Others report seeing the notorious King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
In December 2003, it transpired that in October a closed-circuit security camera at Hampton Court had recorded an indistinct image of "a mysterious figure in a long coat closing the fire doors." According to one report, "the palace... maintained that the footage provided conclusive evidence that ghosts exist." [1] A female palace visitor wrote in the visitor book that she may have seen a ghost in that area during this time, also. "We're baffled too -- it's not a joke, we haven't manufactured it," said Vikki Wood, a Hampton Court spokeswoman, when asked if the photo the palace released was a Christmas hoax. "We genuinely don't know who it is or what it is." [2] Explanations for the phenomena have ranged from a psychology researcher's suggestions that it could have been "a member of the public thinking they were being helpful by shutting the doors to other researchers suggesting thermal effects.
[edit] The maze
Hampton Court is the site of the world-famous Hampton Court Palace Hedge Maze. Planted sometime between 1689 and 1695 by George London and Henry Wise for William III of Orange, it covers a third of an acre and contains half a mile of paths. It is possible that the current design replaced an earlier maze planted for Thomas Cardinal Wolsey. It was originally planted of hornbeam, although it has been repaired using many different types of hedge.
The maze is in 60 acres (243,000 m²) of riverside gardens. It has been described by many authors, including Defoe, who inaccurately called it a labyrinth, and the humorist Jerome K. Jerome, who wrote in Three Men in a Boat:
- "We'll just go in here, so that you can say you've been, but it's very simple. It's absurd to call it a maze. You keep on taking the first turning to the right. We'll just walk round for ten minutes, and then go and get some lunch."
- ...Harris kept on turning to the right, but it seemed a long way, and his cousin said he supposed it was a very big maze.
- "Oh, one of the largest in Europe," said Harris.
- "Yes, it must be," replied the cousin, "because we've walked a good two miles already."
- Harris began to think it rather strange himself, but he held on until, at last, they passed the half of a penny bun on the ground that Harris's cousin swore he had noticed there seven minutes ago.
Jerome exaggerates the hazards of the maze. The maze has relatively few places at which the path forks and at all but one fork (in Jerome's time) the wrong choice led to a dead end at the end of a short corridor. There are many larger and more elaborate mazes nowadays. Recently, three new forking places (not shown on the plan displayed just outside the entrance) have introduced more possibilities of walking closed loops within the maze. The maze can still, as Harris stated, be threaded from entrance to centre and back by the method of always remaining in contact with the wall on one's right. This method guides the traveller into (and then out of) some dead ends and is thus not the shortest path.
In 2006, arts group Greyworld were commissioned to create a permanent artwork for the maze. Their installation, a sound work triggered by hidden sensors embedded in the maze walls, is entitled Trace.
[edit] Photo gallery
 A picture of Anne Boleyn's Gateway. |
 Fountain Court. |
 A statue standing outside of Hampton Court. |
 Coat of arms outside the Chapel at Hampton Court. |
 Formal gardens |
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[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- The Royal Mail include the palace in the East Molesey post town, which gives it a postal address anomalously associated with Surrey.
- Up to the 1980s, grace and favour residences were granted at the palace.
[edit] External links
- Hampton Court at Historic Royal Palaces
- Grace & Favour: A handbook of who lived where at Hampton Court 1750-1950 - there are full floor plans of the palace on pages 10-13
- Jonathan Foyle: "Hampton Court: the lost Palace" 2002
- Aerial view of the maze at Google Maps
- The Hampton Court Flower Show
- The Royal Tennis Court at Hampton Court Palace
- The Choir of The Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace
- Flickr images tagged Hampton Court
- Aerial photo and map
- Hampton Court Photos and details
- Hampton Court, King's Guard Chamber - Virtual tour
- Hampton Court Ghost
| London Borough of Richmond upon Thames |
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Districts: Barnes | Ham | Hampton | Kew | Mortlake | Richmond | St. Margarets | Teddington | Twickenham | Whitton Attractions: Bushy Park | Hampton Court Palace | London Wetlands Centre | Kew Gardens | Richmond Park | Twickenham Stadium Constituencies: Richmond Park | Twickenham |
Categories: Royal buildings in London | Royal residences in the United Kingdom | Tudor royal palaces in England | Gardens in London | Historic houses in London | History of Middlesex | Real tennis venues | Richmond upon Thames | Ghost sighting locations | Christopher Wren London buildings | Nicholas Hawksmoor buildings
