visitor route notes 2015

8/17/2019 Visitor Route Notes 2015

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HamptonCourtPalace

An introduction

to the visitor routes


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Summary of Routes

Dates for Key PeopleCardinal Wolsey, c1475-1530.

Henry VIII, 1509-47William III, 1689-1702 and Mary II, 1689-94Queen Anne, 1702-14, Prince George of Denmark, 1702-08George II, 1727-60, Caroline, 1727-37

Courtyards• Tudor, Baroque• View the buildings from the outside and see how different monarchs

left their mark• See some of the lesser known side courtyards as well as the main

processional ones•

Allow 15 minutes

King Henry VIII’s Apartments (10 rooms)

• Tudor period• Highlights: Great Hall with its Hammerbeam Roof designed by

James Nedeham and Christopher Dickenson for Henry VIII; theRoyal Pew designed by Sir Christopher Wren for William III andMary II in the English Baroque style

• 6 magnificent tapestries from the life of Abraham series in the Great Hall

and six in the Great Watching Chamber, including three from CardinalWolsey’s collection

• Very important Tudor dynasty paintings and the iconic portrait of HenryVIII (after Holbein)

• Processional Route and Haunted Gallery• Allow 35-45 minutes

The Chapel RoyalThe Chapel Royal has been in continuous use as a place of worship for about 500 years. It is a partof the ecclesiastical Household of HM The Queen and there are daily services throughout the year.Visitors are asked to respect this when visiting. There are no tours but warders and very often

chapel stewards are on duty who will be able to answer any questions.

• Period: Tudor, Stuart and Georgian periods• Originally built for Cardinal Wolsey and added to by Henry VIII. Sir

Christopher Wren refitted the Royal Pew for William III and Mary II in theBaroque style and remodelled the body of the Chapel for Queen Anne.

• Highlights: The Royal Pew; the Chapel ceiling, whose restoration wasdirected by Augustus Pugin in the second half of the 19th century; the AltarScreen or Reredos designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor for Queen Anne andcarved by Grinling Gibbons

• Trompe l’oeil window showing Fountain Court; walls painted for QueenAnne

•

Allow 20 minutes


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Henry VIII’s Kitchens (9 rooms)

• Tudor period• Built for Henry VIII• Highlights: Fish Court, an example of environmental

architecture; Wolsey’s original kitchen; Henry VIII’s original greatroasting fireplace• Kitchens presented to evoke the look, sound and smell of the Tudor

kitchens of the 1530s, when the kitchens would have been preparing foodfor over 600 people, twice a day. All the kitchen implements are based onTudor survivals.

• Experimental food historians work in the kitchens as part of their researchinto Tudor food. See website for details of special event days when youcan watch the cooks at work.

• Allow 20 minutes

Young Henry VIII’s Story (8 rooms)

• Tudor period• The early life of Henry, when he was admired at home and

abroad as a cultured, well educated, and handsome Princeand married to the Spanish Princess, Katherine of Aragon,and before he developed into the tyrant of legend

• Located in the Wolsey rooms, a suite of apartments built by ThomasWolsey in the 1520s

• Important Tudor history paintings• Audiovisual displays, interactive touch screens and historic quotes as

well as paintings from the time of Henry VIII•

Allow 20-30 minutes

William III’s Apartments (16 rooms)

• Stuart period• Sir Christopher Wren, assisted by Sir Nicholas Hawksmoor,

designed the apartments for William III and Mary II• Highlights: Antonio Verrio’s wall and ceiling paintings; Van Dyck and

Kneller paintings; the master craftsman, Grinling Gibbons’ stone andwood carvings; Queen Mary’s blue and white porcelain collection

•

Notice how the decoration and furnishings become increasinglyelaborate and costly as you progress through the state rooms, andthe contrast between the formal rooms upstairs and William’s privateapartments downstairs

• Chandeliers, wood carvings, pier glasses, tapestries• Allow 35-45 minutes

Georgian Private Apartments (14 rooms)Georgian Private Apartments: Cumberland suite will be closed until November 2014 when a new ArtRoute opens. The majority of the Georgian Private Apartments will be opened up as part of theGeorgian exhibition at Easter 2014

• Tudor, Stuart, Georgian periods

•

Cumberland Suite designed by the fashionable 18th century


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architect William Kent in the Gothic style for the Duke ofCumberland, youngest son of George II and Caroline; the CartoonGallery designed by Sir Christopher Wren for William III

• Highlights: Italian Old Masters in the Cumberland Suite; WolseyCloset, part of the original Tudor palace

•

Tapestries, paintings, Grinling Gibbons’ carvings, Chinese andJapanese porcelain

• Allow 20-30 minutes


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The Courtyards

Recommendations

Don’t Miss •

Da Maiano TerracottaRoundels

• Henry VIII’s Gatehouse•

Henry VIII’s Great Hall(outside view)

• Astronomical Clock

Brief HistoryHampton Court Palace is not one building, but many, gathered around aseries of interconnecting courtyards which have been constructed,reconstructed and added to at different times over its life.

Hampton Court started as a manorial estate owned by the KnightsHospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem providing guest housefacilities and renting out land. Members of the royal family had been using

it as a staging post between their riverside properties since the 14thcentury. In 1494 it was leased to the courtier, Giles Daubeney, who was tobecome Henry VII’s Lord Chancellor, and who transformed the estate into acourtier’s brick built manor house, grand enough to receive the royalfamily. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey leased the house in 1514 and turned it intoaccommodation sumptuous enough to entertain Henry VIII and receiveforeign dignitaries. By 1525 Hampton Court was a palace fit for a king andWolsey formally presented it to Henry, although Wolsey continued to use ituntil he fell from favour and Henry VIII took it over in 1529. Henry thenembarked on massive building programmes which lasted until 1539. Thenext big change came in 1689 when, soon after their accession, William III

and Mary II commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to draw up plans to turnHampton Court into a baroque palace to rival Louis XIV’s Versailles inFrance. The original plans had involved pulling down the whole of theTudor palace, apart from the Great Hall. However, owing to lack of timeand money, Wren was restricted to rebuilding the King’s and Queen’s mainapartments, which can be seen from Fountain Court, so much more of theTudor palace remains than had been originally planned.

Outer Green Court Henry and important guests would have arrived by river and entered thepalace through the Privy Garden via the Water Gallery. This had been

constructed in 1536, and incorporated a landing stage for the king’s barge


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with a pleasure gallery above. However the main land approach to thepalace was from the west. To begin with the front of the palace was abuilding site but once Henry’s major building work had been completed,the area in front of the palace was cleared, providing the opportunity tocreate an imposing forecourt. In 1535-6 Henry VIII erected a gate where

Trophy Gate is at present and a wall stretching to the palace along thenorth side of a new forecourt, soon to be known as “Outer Green Court”.

Trophy Gate Trophy Gate was commissioned by William III and Mary II and installedunder Sir Christopher Wren. It consists of four piers with bases, andpedestals made of Portland stone. The central piers on either side of thegate show the two most famous of the heraldic royal beasts, the lion andthe unicorn, and were erected in July 1701. The two outer piers with a suitof armour with flags, shield and axe, bow, arrow and trumpet were erectedin November of the same year. The very fine lion and unicorn statuary on

the piers was sculpted by Grinling Gibbons and then cast in bronze by JohnOliver. The actual gates were not put in place until January 1767. (Oxford Archaeology ). At some point the gates were taken down as in 1892 there isa reference to the gates being re-erected between the Trophy Gate pillars.The purpose of which was to keep out ‘tight men’ and ‘loose women’,attracted to the Old Toye Inn, which stood just outside the gates, and theBarrack Block canteen which had been there since the 1870s.

Pear Tree GatePear Tree Gate is the entrance to the Clore Learning Centre. It wasinstalled in 2007 when the new building was opened, the first new build on

Palace land in over 100 years. The Gate was designed by Jill Watson, whoalso made the unique door handles for the new building. In the 15th and16th centuries orchards stood on the site and reference is made to this bythe ‘tree of knowledge’ on the gate.

Barrack BlockOriginally Charles II’s timber framed cavalry barrack block was sited here.In 1689 this was replaced by two separate blocks of barracks for WilliamIII’s Foot and Horse Guards as protection for the new and vulnerablemonarch. These were the earliest purpose-built barrack blocks in Britain.The one to the left was for cavalrymen and their horses. The ground floor

is now the Welcome Centre and shop and two rows of 19th century metalstable posts can still be seen there. It is thought there would have beenroom for c40 horses on the ground floor and c40 cavalry men in the abovetwo rooms. The building to the right was for foot soldiers who occupiedboth the ground and first floors. In 1700 they were joined together bybuilding a sutlery or provision room in the space between the two blocks.By the late 19th century the Barrack Block had been turned into Grace andFavour apartments and the parade ground in front of the Block wasgrassed over (c1889-1900).

Houses of Offices (West Front waterside)

These were finally demolished in 1878. See Appendix for more information.


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Seymour Gate/Great House of EasementVisitors who came by land to the Palace would pass through Outer GreenCourt. Important, high status visitors would then go through the main

Gatehouse, whereas servants, household officers or tradesmen deliveringpalace supplies, would be directed to what is now known as Seymour Gate,the service entrance on the left, which led to a warren of small courtyards,kitchens and offices. This wing with its new gatehouse was added to thepalace by Henry VIII in 1529-30 and was built over Wolsey’s moat where hehad constructed a bridge giving access to his service yard. (P45 Thurley) Once Henry’s building work was completed, the moat went beneath thenew range and the drains from the kitchen ran under that.

Henry VIII added a matching wing on the right in 1535-6 which contained anumber of new lodgings and the palace’s public toilets, thus restoring

symmetry to the building. In Elizabeth’s time it became known as theGreat House of Easement. Occupants sat on boards with 28 circular holesarranged on two levels. The discharge fell into a walled section of the moatclose to the river and was flushed out into the Thames with the tide. Mencalled ‘gong scourers’ had the unpleasant though relatively well paid job ofclearing the waste that had adhered to the walls. From 1759-1838 it wasthe home of the Lady Housekeepers and, when that post was abolished byQueen Victoria, it became one of the Grace and Favour apartments. It isnow known as Apartment 39 and houses the offices of the Chief Executive.

Moat Bridge

A moat possibly surrounded the four sides of theKnights Hospitallers and certainly the Daubeneybuildings. Wolsey filled in Daubeney’s moat on thewest side of his building (which would have been infront of what is now the Anne Boleyn Gateway)and south side (so that the grounds extended tothe Thames) and a new moat dug further west toincorporate the buildings in Base Court.(Presumably he left the moat on north and east sides). He was thus left with an unusual three sidedmoat, the River Thames forming a natural barrier

on the south side. According to Thurley, Wolsey’smoat was dry with a wooden bridge. Henryreplaced this with a brick bridge in 1535. HoweverHampton Court is a palace not a fortress and the moat was for displayrather than defensive purposes (it was only 25 ft across).

The moat which was filled in during Charles II’s reign, seems to have beenlost in subsequent years and was re-discovered in the early 20th century.The moat was dug out in 1908, the bridge restored and the workcompleted in 1911. (This had been delayed by the death of Edward VII in1910.)


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King’s BeastsThe bridge, in common with all the works begun with such enthusiasmafter Anne Boleyn’s coronation, was in actuality completed in the reign ofQueen Jane. Anne’s leopard had no sooner replaced the pomegranate ofKatharine of Aragon than it was being carefully converted into the panther

of Jane Seymour. The 12 King’s Beasts guarding the moat bridge today arecopies made in 1950 of an earlier set made in 1910. The original beasts from1911 were designed by the heraldic scholar Rev. EE Doiling. They werecleaned/conserved in 2009 for Henry VIII’s 500th anniversary.

RoundelsWolsey commissioned the eight brightly glazedterracotta roundels of a classical figure in 1521from a Florentine sculptor, Giovanni da Maiano, asa statement of his classical learning and culturalsophistication. Although well known in

Renaissance Italy, this was a new style ofdecoration in England and are some of the earliestRenaissance sculptures produced in England.Maybe Wolsey and Henry identified with theseleaders of the ancient world.

There are now 11 roundels at Hampton Court. The two roundels above theGatehouse, Tiberius on the left and Nero on the right, are additional tothose originally commissioned by Wolsey. They were added to theGatehouse by the Victorian Surveyor Edward Jesse after he found them ina cottage in Windsor Park (Thurley p 24). They were possibly brought

from the long demolished Holbein Gate at Whitehall Palace.

West Gate

Don’t Miss• Henry VIII’s coat of arms with a lion and a dragon in the middle of the

Gatehouse was added by Henry in 1530• Henry VIII replaced Wolsey’s great doors and it is Henry’s doors you

see today. They were removed possibly around 1771 and reinstalledduring the 1882 restoration work

•

Victorian vaulted ceiling

The Great Gatehouse was completed in 1521 forCardinal Wolsey and was designed as a grandentrance to the palace. Originally it had fivestoreys topped with onion domes but it wasnever completely stable (maybe thefoundations had been weakened as it wasconstructed on the edge of the moat). Sixunsuccessful attempts were made tostrengthen it by underpinning and partial

rebuilding but in 1770 it was remodelled by Sir William Chambers and


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reduced in height by two storeys to the three storey building you seetoday.

The vault in the Gatehouse was restored in 1882 and replaced an earlier fanvault which was still visible in 1821. It is carved in Bath stone and in the

centre is the Royal Arms that was adopted by Queen Victoria and whichhas been used by all Sovereigns since. It is surrounded by the Garter, andthen around that are 12 bosses incorporating Queen Victoria’s cypher aswell as references to Cardinal Wolsey e.g. a cardinal’s hat, TC for ThomasCardinalis. The ceiling crests were re-gilded and the diaper brickwork onthe walls was re-stained in 2009 for Henry VIII’s 500th anniversarycelebrations.

Base Court1

Don’t Miss• Henry VIII’s Coat of Arms with the dragon and greyhound behind you

on Great Gatehouse (east facing side) compliments that on front ofGatehouse

• Two Queen Elizabeth I crests on the turrets on either side of thegatehouse dated 1566

• 50 chimneys can be seen from this courtyard. (The Palace has over411 chimneys of which 241 are Victorian or later)

• The wine fountain was installed in 2010, based on the fountainappearing in the Tudor painting The Field of the Cloth of Gold.

This huge outer courtyard was built to impress byWolsey, providing magnificent, if cramped,accommodation for members and guests of the court.Behind the windows the lodgings were entered from acontinuous internal gallery on three sides of thecourtyard with a single entrance. This enabled gueststo circulate within the courtyard whilst keeping dryand warm. There were 40 guest lodgings (LucyWorsley says 30), each with an outer and inner roomwarmed by a fireplace, and its own private toilet whichdischarged into drains running beneath the courtyard

and out to the river.

It is one of the best surviving parts of Wolsey’s Hampton Court although,according to Thurley, the original external stonework in Base Court is nowlost and has been replaced with 19th century or later restorations. Much ofthe original brickwork has also been replaced, especially on the parapetsand around windows but, again according to Thurley, enough remains to

1 There is an ongoing programme of conservation works to the external facades and roofsof Hampton Court. Currently focussing on the building range to the north of Anne

Boleyn’s Gateway and includes the west façade of the Great Hall. Due for completion May2014.

http://patrickbaty.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Cardinal-Wolsey.jpg


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show that it was covered in a diamond diaperwork pattern constructed ofburnt headers (brick ends).

The cobbles were relaid in 2009 to bring the courtyard closer to what itwould have looked like in Wolsey’s time. The cobbles which were used

were the size of those used in Wren’s time (Wolsey’s/Henry’s ‘peblyls’would have been much smaller). It had been grassed over in 1891 in themistaken belief that this was how it appeared in Tudor times.

Anne Boleyn’s Gateway

Don’t Miss• Henry VIII’s Coat of Arms on front of (west facing) Anne Boleyn’s

Gateway showing a lion and a dragon. It was added in 1530, possiblya substitute for a terracotta panel

• On this same side are the two Maiano roundels of Trajan and

Hadrian2 • Look up at the Tudor rose, the Prince of Wales feathers, Beaufort

portcullis, Anne Boleyn phoenix in the Gateway vault which areVictorian copies of the originals, including Henry and Anne’s initials.

This middle gateway, now called Anne Boleyn’s Gateway (or InnerGatehouse) was re-built in 1880 and takes you through to Clock Court.Wolsey’s original vault in the Gatehouse was replaced by Henry with a fanvault bearing his and Anne’s initials. Henry also added the processionalstaircase on the left up to the Great Hall.

Clock Court This court is the heart of the Palace and is named after the magnificentAstronomical Clock. For over 300 years monarchs and their architects andcraftsmen have been changing the buildings to suit their needs which hasresulted in a mixture of architectural styles: Tudor, mock Gothic, Baroque.

Looking West (back to Gateway)

Don’t Miss• On the east facing side of the Gateway are two Maiano roundels of

Vitellius and Augustus. The roundels are not a matching set:

Augustus is glazed in striking black, white and yellow. The otherswere originally painted and gilded which would have hidden thecontrasting fabrics of the busts and the roundels that frame them.

• In the middle of the east facing side of the Gateway is Wolsey’sterracotta coat of arms held up by a pair of putti (c1525). Henry VIIIcovered them up with his own arms in 1531 but Wolsey’s wererediscovered and restored in 1845

2 Trajan roundel covered for conservation cleaning (Nov 2013)


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The Astronomical Clock testifies to Henry’s greatenthusiasm for scientific learning. The clock wasprobably designed by the “deviser of the king’shorologies”, Nicolaus Kratzer, a Bavarian. Its complexgears and gilded dials depict a medieval world in which

the sun orbits the earth and were made in 1540 by ayoung Frenchman, Nicholas Oursian. The clock’s mostcunning device was its ability to tell the time of highwater at London Bridge, essential information for Henryand his court when tides governed travel to and from the palace. (Formore information see Appendix).

An ancient bell, which chimes every quarter, hangs in the tower above theinner gatehouse and the Astronomical Clock. It is mentioned in a lease ofDaubeney’s for Hampton Court and may well have come from the chapel ofDaubeney’s time or even of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of

Jerusalem. There is a suggestion that it was a ship’s bell prior to itsinstallation.

Looking South

Don’t Miss• Christopher Wren’s baroque colonnade built right up against the

Tudor building3 • The red bricks set into the surface of the courtyard mark out the

position of Daubeney’s old manor house, which in Wolsey’s timebecame a long gallery linking his apartments with the King’s on the

first floor

The Baroque Colonnade was part of William and Mary’s plans, soon aftertheir accession to the English throne in 1689, to turn Hampton Court into abaroque palace along the lines of Versailles in France. It was designed byChristopher Wren and constructed as a grand entrance to William III’sApartment (which can be accessed on the left under the Colonnade).Behind these pillars is part of Wolsey’s old palace. There was no respectfor the original buildings - new structures were put up against the old, andmuch of the Tudor building material was re-used.

Looking North

Don’t Miss• Water pump in right hand corner. Fresh water was very important to

the palace and came from springs on Coombe Hill not far away.• George II square leaded drainpipe.

3 Stone cleaning and redecoration is currently taking place to the internal colonnade. As a

result of paint analysis and documentary research, a paint scheme is being used which is

thought will better represent the appearance intended by Wren in the late 17th

century andearly 18

th century.


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Henry’s Great Hall, a distinctive building with its tall windows and gildedweather vanes. Wolsey had begun rebuilding Daubeney’s hall but it is notquite clear how far his work had progressed. (LW p 33) Henry’s workmenstarted on it in 1532 using locally sourced timber and bricks in the alreadyold fashioned medieval style. The Great Hall was the social hub of the

palace where, in Henry’s time, meals were provided for 600 people twice aday. Traces of the original Great Hall of the Knights Hospitaller have beenfound underneath Henry’s Great Hall. The King’s beasts on the roof areVictorian replacements (1882).

Looking East

Don’t Miss• George II’s initials and date of 1732 over the Gateway• Four Maiano medallions

Wolsey added sumptuous private chambers for his own use as well asthree suites for the new royal family: the whole of the east side of ClockCourt became a block of splendid royal lodgings intended for Henry’sdaughter, the Princess Mary on the ground floor, Henry VIII on the firstfloor and his first wife Catherine of Aragon on the second. TheCumberland Suite, commissioned by George II and Queen Caroline for theiryoungest and favourite son, William, Duke of Cumberland, was built on thesite of these apartments in 1732. Designed by William Kent in mockTudor/gothic fashion, he was also responsible for the George II Gatewaywhich he modelled on existing gateways at Hampton Court Palace. Itincluded as decoration a re-use of four of the Maiano medallions: Titus,

Otho, Galba, Julius.

George II Gateway to Fountain Court

Don’t Miss• Painted wood panelling• Silver Stick staircase on left going to the Georgian Rooms

Go through the double doors ahead to The Queen’s Staircase on the left.The staircase leads to The Queen’s Apartments. (The Queen’s and Princeof Wales Apartments will be closed for enabling works prior to their re-

opening at Easter 2014 and in November 2014 respectively).

The Queen’s Staircase was completed by William Kent in 1734 for George IIand Queen Caroline. The walls had remained plain since the death of MaryII, in contrast to the King’s Staircase which had been finished duringWilliam III’s reign. Kent painted the walls with a series of trompe l’oeilniches and half-domed spaces with classical sculptures in them. The ceilingincluded the Garter star and royal ciphers. Pride of place was given toGerard van Honthorst’s vast canvas Mercury Presenting the Liberal Arts to Apollo and Diana, originally commissioned by Charles I for the BanquetingHouse at Whitehall (1628). The central lantern is by Benjamin Goodison.


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Fountain Court

Don’t Miss• The very faded Labours of Hercules roundels by Louis Laguerre4

Floor tiles consisting of Swedish limestone fossils•

Grace and Favour plaques and bell at the south east corner ofFountain Court (see Appendix re resident Beau Brummell)

Double doors lead into Fountain Court, the last courtyard and the Baroquepart of the palace. To your left, as you enter the Courtyard, is the route,past the Chapel, to Chapel Court, and on your right to Chocolate Court.

Henry VIII and his wives after Katherine ofAragon originally had their privateapartments here when it was known asCloister Green Court. The north and east

sides had started in 1533 as a new andgrander suite of apartments for AnneBoleyn and then from 1537 the southernside consisted of Henry VIII’s ‘secret’lodgings that overlooked the gardens.This roughly mirrored the shape of Fountain Court which replaced it over150 years later with Wren’s rebuilding of the king’s and queen’s mainapartments in the symmetrical Baroque style (1689-94). William III’sapartments were in roughly the same position as Henry’s lodgings on thesouth side of the quadrangle, meeting the Queen’s Apartments, originallyintended for Mary II, at the south east corner of Fountain Court. All but

Henry’s Bayne Tower was rebuilt.

You are faced with a four sided courtyard edged by an ionic colonnadedwalkway which leads into the Gardens through the East Front opposite. Underneath each arch are delicately carved flowers and royal symbols,each being topped by the head of a classical god or mythic creature. Thisdetailed work would have been hugely expensive. Underneath the stonebalustrade and behind the upper square windows on the north, south andeast sides were lodgings for leading servants and courtiers who could lookdown on the courtiers walking and gossiping and showing off their fineclothes in the courtyard below. Below the upper windows, on the north

and east facing sides, is a row of round windows which is mirrored on thesouth facing side by a row of now faded roundels. They were painted byLouis Laguerre in 1691-94 with scenes from The Labours of Hercules, whichillustrate William’s wish to be thought of as a modern day Hercules. Acarving of Hercules’ lion skin is draped over each roundel. The fountainswere built by Wren, sourced from the Longford river and gravity fed. Thelamps on the columns are possibly Victorian, were originally oil burning andthe only ones of their kind in the Palace.

4 Conservators have undertaken a close inspection of four of the 12 Louis Laguerre

roundels to find out why they have faded so much


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East Front Entrance to Gardens

Don’t Miss• Graffiti on pillars on both side walls: put there by (bored?) sentries

on duty in 1836•

The two giant Carrara marble urns were originally carved for WilliamIII in 1691 by Edward Pearce and Caius Gabriel Cibber. They werereturned to Hampton Court in 2011 for the first time in nearly 200years. They were designed to be placed in William’s new gardens atHampton Court Palace and their original bases are still in situ at thehead of the Long Water. (See Appendix)

East Front

Wren and Talman completely transformedthe east and south facades of HamptonCourt, replacing Tudor towers and chimneyswith the grand and elegant baroqueexteriors that dominate the formal gardenstoday. The east front features a row ofround windows and is topped by abalustrade. A carved triangular pedimentmarks the position of the main room on theprincipal (first) floor and masks a low attic storey. Don’t miss Caius GabrielCibber’s carving depicting Hercules triumphing over Envy contained in thepediment and the intertwined monogram of W & M poignantly forming oneof the principal decorative motifs on the exterior of the range (Mary haddied before the work was completed).

On William’s death the principal building works were complete. The EastFront contained the shell of the range intended as the Queen’s Apartments,unfinished since Mary’s death in 1694.

Additional Courtyards

Stone Court/Key Court, off Fountain Court

(about half way down the colonnade on the right as you enter FountainCourt)Henry’s suite of private rooms the Bayne Tower, were so called becausethey contained the ‘bayne’, a sixteenth century word for bath. This is athree storey tower of lodgings which contained a study, library, jewelhouse, a first floor bedroom and adjoining bathroom. A furnace in a nearbyroom heated water for his circular bathtub. This first floor bedchamberwas the last in the chain of increasingly important rooms that extendedfrom the palace entrance to the King’s presence. The furnace of Henry’sBayne room existed until the 1950s when it was demolished to create a liftshaft to service the grace and favour residents above King William’s


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Apartments. The lift is now known as Lord Moore’s lift. The Courtyard isused as a café in the summer months.

Chocolate Court5 (off Fountain Court at the junction of the west and south facing sides. Can

also be seen from the lower floor of the King’s Apartments and the GardenDisplay room through the garden shop)

The Dutch had traded in and enjoyed chocolate far longer than the English.King William III (1689-1702) and his circle of Dutch noblemen wereespecially fond of chocolate and when William came to England heinstalled kitchens specifically for making chocolate both at Kensington andSt James. At Hampton Court he ensured that a chocolate kitchen wasincluded in the suite of specialist kitchens and stores in the newly builtFountain Court. This is where William’s morning chocolate was prepared.It was a long held belief that Mr Nice held this post but it has now been

discovered that this was a mis-translation of the name Grice, who was anAssistant Groom. King William’s chocolate maker was in fact ThomasTosier. On his death, his wife Grace bought a chocolate house inGreenwich which became a favourite haunt for the rich and famous. GraceTosier became well known in her own right and was notorious for her largehat and having “flowers in her bosoms”.6 The Georgian kings and queensalso loved chocolate. According to the Earl of Hardwicke, King George IIdrank chocolate shortly before his unseemly death in his water closet atKensington Palace on 25 October 1760.

Chapel Court Garden (on entering Fountain Court, take your immediate left, past the ChapelRoyal on your left, to Chapel Court on your left)

The west range of Chapel Court was partly built by Wolsey c1515-1528 withthe section housing one of a pair of large spiral staircases that served theadjacent T-shaped chapel. Chapel Court itself was built by Henry VIII andmany different phases of work can be seen here, including the primaryphase under Cardinal Wolsey; the addition of the council chambers byHenry VIII; the 18th century heightening of the range to three storeys

sometime between 1710-1775; and the 19th century repairs andrefenestration.

5 Recent research has uncovered two rooms associated with chocolate making at

Hampton Court: the Chocolate Kitchen and Chocolate Room. The Kitchen will beconserved and the Room will be re-presented, filled with spice, silver and porcelain. TheChocolate Kitchen will open on 14 February 2014 and there will be live chocolate makingevery day during February half term week and then on Tudor cookery weekendsthroughout the year. There is a secret staircase off the lobby between the two rooms upwhich the chocolate was taken to the King’s Apartments. (Information taken from HRPMembers Magazine Autumn 2013 and Lee Prosser talk at Volunteer Seminar Nov 2013.)


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This new Tudor garden was created by landscape architect, ToddLongstaffe-Gowan, in 2009 to to commemorate the 500th anniversary ofKing Henry VIII’s accession to the throne in 1509. It is planted with flowersand herbs that were available in 16th century England. It also includes theheraldic beasts that were used by King Henry to represent his lineage and

reinforce his claim to the throne. The double row of speciallycommissioned ‘Kyngs beestes’ are inspired by those in the painting, TheFamily of Henry VIII (c1545), which hangs in the palace and clearly depictsthe magnificent beasts’ standing post amongst the flowerbeds: the goldenlion of England, a bull, dragon, falcon, leopard, greyhound, lion, white hindand a yale. They are hand carved in English oak, then painted and gildedwith the heraldic colours of the period.

Round Kitchen Court(Turn right out of Chapel Court, then left into North Cloister and left againinto Round Kitchen Court)

The area merged with Wolsey’s parkland until Henry built his close tenniscourt 1532-3 and the Prince’s lodging in 1537 creating a quadrangle. Thereare pre-Wolsey remains beneath the east side/wing of Chapel Court –possibly evidence of a boundary wall or even a building. In 1884 thearchitect John Lessels was asked to design a boiler house for the palaceheating system. He ‘invented’ a Tudor building to house it which is thebuilding there today.

Scullery Courtyard(continue down North Cloister , past the Buttery Stairs on left and turnimmediate right through green door. This is usually locked but area can be

accessed from the kitchens if you ask a warder)There is a suggestion that this could be part of the original D’Aubeneykitchens but there is scant evidence for this and it is a controversial area.However the Wolsey part of the Great Kitchen may still turn out to be fromD’Aubeney’s time. The area was and still is a scullery. The earliestevidence for this so far is the 1674 survey of lodgings which marks it assuch. In Henry’s time it would have been an area for servants to wash andclean dishes.


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Fish Court(At bottom of North Cloister turn right into Master Carpenter’s Court, rightagain into Henry VIII’s Kitchens, and then first left into Fish Court)This is also part of Henry VIII’s kitchen service wing. It looks just like acorridor with store rooms off to left and right but is effectively a Tudor

fridge in the middle of the kitchen complex, allowing for the short termstorage of raw ingredients. The space is narrow, running north to south, sothat the sun does not shine, and is open to the air, so that the stone storesstay cool. On the right was the wet fish store and on the other side it isbelieved was a store for grain. There was also a meat store. The door atthe west end of the court, and immediately on your left as you enter, wouldhave led to the pastry house and above that was the confectionary, wheredelicate sweets were made for the Royal table by the only womanrecorded at work in the kitchens.

Master Carpenter’s Court and Lord Chamberlain’s Court

(Go back, past the Boiling House into Master Carpenter’s Court and beyondthat Lord Chamberlain’s Court)

This is part of Henry VIII’s great kitchen servicewing built in 1529-30 and would have been ahive of activity. Notice the great gate underthe first arch opposite the entrance to thekitchens. All provisions were brought throughthe gate into Master Carpenter’s Court (aspace big enough to turn a horse and cartaround) where they were accounted for, put

into store, or taken to one of the kitchens.Accounts were kept by the officers of the‘Board of the Green Cloth’, whose office lay over the outer gate and fromwhere they could monitor supplies coming into the palace. Not far fromthis office on the ground floor was the jewel house, in which was held thecoin needed to pay the palace suppliers as they delivered their goods.Other adjoining offices included the spicery, where herbs and spices werekept and which was also responsible for the supply of fruit, and thechandlery where wax, for candles and tapers, and linen for the table werestored and distributed. Across the courtyard was the coalhouse, storingboth charcoal for the kitchen chaffing dishes and luxurious sea-coal for

burning in the king’s and queen’s rooms. To the left and right are panedarched windows set in high redbrick walls. The walls are topped withTudor chimneys with their distinctive twisting patterns.

Appendix

Houses of OfficesUntil 1536 the area in front of the Palace was the builders’ work yard, thematerials being delivered by barge or floated down the river, and landed at‘the Thames side’. A range of timber-framed workhouses were then

constructed, well away from the palace, for noisy, smelly operations, such


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as the slaughtering and scalding houses, and potentially dangerousactivities like the bakehouses, which were notorious for burning down, andthe squillery, the highly inflammable rushes store. Sited on the river’s edge,they were each linked to a timber landing stage to allow the delivery ofprovisions by barge. They were finally demolished in 1878.

The Astronomical ClockStationary outer ring shows the hours of the day; Outer Dial rotatesannually and shows the day of the year, the position of the sun in thezodiac and the date; Middle Dial is the solar dial and the pointer rotatesdaily, telling the time; Inner Dial is the lunar dial and rotates monthly,indicating the phases and visible portion of the moon.

Grace and Favour resident in Fountain CourtBeau Brummell, born George Bryan Brummell at 10 Downing Street (1778 -1840) lived as a child with his father in Apartment 10, a grace and favour

apartment on the third floor of the south side of Fountain Court. BeauBrummell’s father, William, was private secretary to the Prime Minister, LordNorth, from 1770 to 1782 and it is this position which gave him the apartment atHCP. Beau was an arbiter of fashion, a wit, and friend of the Prince Regent untilthey fell out.

Marble Urns, East Front Vestibule Two giant Carrara marble urns, originally carved forWilliam III in 1691 by Edward Pearce and GabrielCibber were reinstated at Hampton Court inFebruary 2011 for the first time in nearly 200 years.

The urns were designed to be placed in William III’snew gardens at Hampton Court Palace. Their originalbases can still be seen at the head of the LongWater.In 1829 the urns were moved by George IV for hisnew east terrace garden at Windsor. Sadly the urnsweathered badly over time and a new home wasfound for them in the 1970s in the Orangery atKensington Palace.

Specialist stone conservators dismantled the two urns at Kensington and

returned them to Hampton Court, re-building them during a cold week atthe beginning of February 2011.

Each urn is made of five large sections of marble and during thedismantling phase stone conservators carefully removed the mortarbetween the joints using hand tools so that the urns could be taken apartpiece by piece. Each urn weighs just under 3 tonnes and measures nearly3m high. It took three weeks to take them apart and box them for transportand another week to put them back together in the East Front vestibule.New Portland stone bases were laid first and then each section of the urnwas carefully lifted back into position before the joints were filled in and

the urns given a final clean!


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King Henry VIII’s Apartments (10 rooms)

Recommendations

Short Visit: The Great HallLonger Visit: The Great Hall, Great

Watching Chamber andProcessional Route

Don’t Miss

• Hammerbeam Roof, The Great Hall• Abraham Tapestries, The Great Hall

• Ceiling, Great Watching Chamber• Iconic painting

The Family of HenryVIII, Processional Route

• Henry’s Council Chamber• Royal Pew with reconstruction of

Henry VIII’s crown

Brief History

In 1514 Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s very rich and powerful minister, leasedfrom the Knight’s Hospitallers, the house that had originally belonged to

Giles Daubeney. He then began a programme of works to turn the buildinginto a magnificent palace where he could entertain the king and foreigndignitaries on an impressive scale.

At Wolsey’s fall from favour in 1528, Henry VIII confiscated Hampton CourtPalace and embarked on his own massive building programme. The privaterooms Henry created were either demolished or internally remodelledduring the building works of later monarchs. However, what survives arehis magnificent state apartments - the Great Hall and Great WatchingChamber (built in the 1530s) – and the Chapel.

Top of the Stairs

Don’t Miss• Henry VIII’s Coat of Arms over the main door into the Hall• Henry VIII’s badge of roses and Catherine of Aragon’s pomegranate

over doorway into the room on the left as you enter The Great Hall

Introductory film about Henry VIII and his six wives in the room on the left.


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The Great Hall

Don’t Miss• Abraham Tapestries7 • 4 tapestries from the Dido and Aeneas series above Great Hall dais8 •

The initials of Henry and Anne Boleyn at top of the carved oak screento the left and right as you enter – they were obviously overlookedwhen Anne fell out of favour and was eventually beheaded. Henryhad ordered that all such reminders of Anne should be erased.

• Look up at the eavesdroppers on the Great Hall roof: carved andpainted heads intended to remind people that there is alwayssomeone listening to you so beware what you say!

• The Oriel Window and beautiful carved ceiling• Minstrels’ Gallery behind you where the diners were entertained with

Tudor music

This is the largest room in the palace and was the first in a sequence ofrooms leading towards Henry’s private lodgings. It was built during AnneBoleyn’s rise to power.

In Henry’s time the hall was used to feed the lesser members of the royalcourt living in the palace - two sittings of around 300 people a time at both11 am and 5/6pm. On special occasions it was hung with tapestries andused for court dances and masques. Later, under James I, the Great Hallwas used for theatricals.

The magnificent hammerbeam roof, an already outdated design

deliberately chosen by Henry to symbolize royalty, antiquity and chivalry,was designed by James Nedeham and Christopher Dickenson, and built inthe 1530s. In Henry’s time it was painted blue and would have shimmeredwith light.

The walls are hung with part of a magnificent set of ten tapestriesdepicting the biblical story of the life of Abraham. Commissioned byHenry, they were woven c1540 by the famous Brussels weaver, Willem deKempeneer, and cost the then fabulous amount of £2000. The tapestriescame to Hampton Court Palace c1543/44 and are richly woven in wool, silkand silver and gold metal threads. It is thought that Henry may have seen

parallels in his own life with that of Abraham – a son born late in life, longlasting dynasty, head of a church etc. They were the most valuable objectsin the Royal Collection when Charles I’s possessions were valued for saleafter his execution and are considered to be one of the finest to survivefrom any period. The set survived the sale as Cromwell wanted them forhimself. Three other tapestries from the set are hanging in King William

7 Circumcision of Isaac – washed by CCC (17 July 2013). Beginning of a full conservation

treatment of the Abraham series of tapestries. The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek

going to exhibition at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct 2014 8 The Great Hall: Rehanging of Dido and Aeneas tapestries Feb 2013


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III’s Apartments (where they had been placed by William) and the tenth isin long-term conservation.9

The four Dido and Aeneas tapestries hanging above the dais are part of aset of five. They are probably of Brussels manufacture and it is thought

they were purchased by Elizabeth I and are mentioned in the inventories ofJames I and Charles I.

A stone hearth lay in the centre of the hall and smoke was intended toescape through a shuttered louvre above it in the medieval fashion.However, the absence of any soot on the timbers of the louvre suggests tosome people that it may never have been used and could have been forshow only.

Dr Jonathan Foyle, architectural historian,thinks the stonework and outside brickwork of

the oriel/bay window were part of Wolsey’soriginal palace but have been heavily restored.The decorated glass in the window wasdestroyed during Cromwell’s time and wasreplaced in 1846 using designs by ThomasWillement. The beautiful ceiling in the bay isalso thought to be original to Wolsey’s palace.

Horn Room

Don’t Miss•

The life-size portrait of Elizabeth I’s Porter by Cornelius Ketel, 1580.An enormous man, reputedly the tallest man in London at the time!

This was originally called the Leaning Room as servants used to leanagainst the walls with trays of food, waiting until needed. It now has adisplay of horns dating back to the 17th century, including the 2 millionyear old fossilised horns of a Great Elk, found in Ireland and presented toCharles II. On your left the staircase from the kitchens still has its originaloak steps. As you leave the Horn Room, on the left of the doorway, thereis part of an original Tudor doorway arch. Now go through the doorwayinto the Great Watching Chamber.

Great Watching Chamber

Don’t Miss• The three dark roundels in the far right hand corner of the ceiling

(closest to the door which led through to Henry VIII’s PrivateApartments) are the original Tudor roundels made from leathermaché. The rest are wooden casts.

9 Two of the Abraham tapestries were covered and overlaid with linen reproductions in

preparation for the erection of scaffolding in the Minstrels Gallery. Armorial tapestries onthe front of the gallery were removed, September 2013


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• The Empress Roundel over the fireplace is made from glazedterracotta and dates from 1531-2. The roundel is almost certainlyfrom the Da Maiano workshop and is one of eight commissioned byHenry for the Holbein Gate at Whitehall Palace.

This was the first of the king’s state apartments where members of theYeomen of the Guard were stationed to ‘watch’ and control access to theking. It was also where courtiers would wait for an audience with the kingand those above the rank of baron would eat. The doors at the end of theroom once led to a sequence of chambers which formed Henry’s moreprivate apartments. They were internally remodelled by William III in 1689during his rebuilding work and subsequently extensively changed by theGeorgians.

The Chamber is more lavishly decorated than the Great Hall and celebratesHenry’s third wife, Jane Seymour (married 1536). Originally the ceiling had

130 painted and gilded leather maché roundels, decorated with the badgesand family arms of Henry and Jane (the Tudor Rose, the fleur de lys ofFrance, the portcullis of Henry’s paternal grandmother, Margaret Beaufort,Jane Seymour’s phoenix). The ceiling has been restored but there are stillthree original roundels.

Wolsey, like Henry, was an enthusiastic collector of tapestries which wereused to display the owner’s wealth and importance. Three of the sixtapestries in this room are from Wolsey’s collection and are dated to c1515.The Triumph of Fame over Death is part of a set of six tapestries, three ofwhich are at Hampton Court Palace (the other two being the Triumph of

Death over Chastity and the Triumph of Time over Fame- in store). Theyare based on the poem ‘The Triumphs’ by the 14th century Italian, Petrarch,and were purchased by Wolsey from the Bishop of Durham in 1523.

Justice disarmed by Mercy (Music) and Humanity surprised by the sevendeadly sins (Dancing) probably derive from a 9 piece set known as the‘Seven Deadly Sins’, which in turn are part of a design series known as the‘Triumph of Virtues over Vices’. The Death of Hercules is a fragment of alarger tapestry, and is part of an eight piece set of the Story of Hercules. Itis dated to c1515 and is probably one of a set of 8 tapestries listed at HCP inthe 1547 inventory of Henry VIII’s collection. Aeneas departing from

Carthage is from a set of five tapestries depicting the story of Dido andAeneas at HCP and dated to c1523. They also have been identified asbeing listed in Henry VIII’s 1547 inventory. Romance has an unidentifiedallegorical subject but is possibly one of the groups of ‘Plesaunce’ tapestries recorded in the 1547 inventory. It typifies the sort of goodquality courtly and allegorical tapestry that Wolsey and Henry would havebeen acquiring during the mid 1520s. It dates to c1515.

There are also three Wolsey armorials and one belonging to Henry VIII.These are borders which have been added to tapestries with the coat ofarms or royal emblems of the owner.


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The stained glass window was designed by Thomas Willement in 1845. Thefireplace was unblocked in 1993 and given a marble surround.

The Empress Roundel over the fireplace, displayed in2011, is made from glazed terracotta and dates from

1531-2. It is almost certainly from the Da Maianoworkshop and is one of eight commissioned by Henryfor the Holbein Gate at Whitehall Palace.

Garderobe (Privy)

This is a small room off the Chamber. It provided a convenient privy forthe many courtiers, guards and servants serving and waiting in theChamber. The steps at the back of the fireplace went up to the originalprivy.

Pages’ Room (on right just into Processional Route)

Don’t Miss• The ‘A’ on the Tudor cabinet, probably added at a later date, is for

Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, who died aged 16, before his fatherHenry VII, so making Henry heir to the throne.

• The door on the right led into the Great Watching Chamber via a splitin the tapestry hanging in front of it

• There is original plaster and graffiti here behind the glass on the leftof the entrance

This was used as an office and bedroom by the royal pages whose dutiesincluded waiting on the courtiers in the Great Watching Chamber. It isdisplayed as it might have looked in the 1540s and the furniture andobjects are all from the sixteenth century.

Processional Route (first corridor)10

Don’t Miss• To the left of the doorway there is part of an original Tudor doorway

arch• Graffiti in the stonework on either side of window sills.• Bexson stairs (named after a Head Warder who was at the palace

from 1959-1970) on left lead down to the kitchens.• Red painted window frames are inspired by the painting of Boy

Looking through a Casement showing the Tudor love of colour intheir buildings.

• Roundel with carving of Henry VIII over double doors through to thesecond part of the Processional Route is original Tudor

10 Representation of Processional Route, October 2012


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The Processional Route was used by Henry to access the chapel from hisprivate apartments. On Sundays and special holy days Henry would usethe opportunity to be seen by his court. Courtiers waited along the route tobe seen by him and to present petitions.

Paintings11

• Elizabeth, Lady Vaux: after Holbein. A cousin of Katheryn Parr.

• Copy of a letter from Catherine Howard (Queen Aug 1540) toThomas Culpepper (on left)

• Portrait of a Man in Red : German/Netherlandish School, 16th century.Returned from Royal Collection exhibition, “In Fine Style: the Art ofTudor and Stuart Costume”, October 2013. Last on display here in2009.

• William Reskimer: 1 2

Hans Holbein the Younger (1520-40). WilliamReskimer (d 1552) came from Cornwall and held various posts at the

court of Henry VIII including Page of the Chamber and GentlemanUsher. In 1543 he was granted keepership of the Duchy of Cornwall.

• Christina of Denmark : she was thought to be a possible wife forHenry but sensibly refused him (above fireplace)

• Henry VIII : after Holbein. Henry in iconic pose.

• Boy Looking through a Casement :13 16th century, Flemish School (inthe collection of the elder brother of Charles I, Henry Prince of Wales,who died before he could become king). Unusual painting for its timeas servants were not normally the subject of paintings. (On left inalcove)

• Johann Froben : (on left). By Hans Holbein the Younger 1520-40. One

of the finest printers of his time who published the works of his friendErasmus as well as the artworks of Hans Holbein the Younger.

• Erasmus : (On left). By Hans Holbein the Younger 1520-40. The bestknown scholar of the Tudor Age

• Queen Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses: Hans Eworth, 1569. 14

• Francis I : king of France and Henry VIII’s greatest rival

• Charles V : Holy Roman Emperor and the most powerful Renaissancemonarch for most of Henry’s reign.

• The Pope, ‘A Protestant Allegory’15: by Girolamo da Treviso. A

gruesome picture showing the writers of the four Gospels crushing

11 Following the end of the Royal collection exhibition, “Northern Renaissance: Durer to

Holbein" three paintings by Hans Holbein, William Reskimmer, Johannes Froben andErasmus were hung in the Tudor Processional route, plus “The Whitehall Mural” byRemigius Leemput.12

William Reskimer by Hans Holbein the Younger on loan for four month exhibition inExeter: West Country to World’s End: The South West in the Tudor Age. October 201313 Rehung Feb 2013 following loan to the National Portrait Gallery for their exhibition about

Henry Prince of Wales: The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart, 18/10/12-13/1/1314

Queen Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses Hans Eworth, removed for inclusion in Royal

Collection exhibition “In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion”, Queens Gallery,Buckingham Palace, 10 May – 6 October 2013


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the Pope with rocks which was commissioned and owned by Henry.Henry became Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1534. Hebelieved he had direct access to God and did not need theintervention of the Pope.

Henry’s Council Chamber (through double doors on left)

Don’t Miss• View of the Chapel Court Tudor Garden from the windows in the

Chamber• The Council met every day and this was where some of the most

important political decisions of Henry’s reign would have been made.The room has been set up as a multimedia debating chamber wherevisitors can listen to and watch Henry’s councillors in discussion.

• The painting of the Family of Henry VIII (in the Processional Route)inspired designs for the Chapel Court Garden and the floor of the

Council Chamber.

Continuation of the Processional Route to the Holyday Closet(also called the Haunted Gallery)

This part is called the Haunted Gallery as a ghostly figure, traditionallysupposed to be Catherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife, is said to have beenseen running along the Gallery in a desperate effort to reach the King atMass in order to plead her innocence. She was executed in 1542.

The gallery was lined with hangings when the king was in residence. Thepattern for the current hangings was taken from Holbein’s painting, ‘The Ambassadors’.

Wedding Video (room on left)Henry VIII is shown marrying Kateryn Parr, his sixth and final wife, in thePrivy Closet on 12 July 1543.

From the window on your right can be seen William and Mary’s GameLarder in Round Kitchen Court.

Paintingson the left hand wall illustrate Henry’s royal lineage and his right to thethrone:

• Henry VII : (British School, 1590s) Henry’s father, Henry VII, ascendedthe throne in 1485 after the Battle of Bosworth, during which theexisting king, Richard III, was killed. Henry VII was a Lancastrian, notdirectly in line to the throne, and there were plenty of Yorkistclaimants who could create trouble for Henry VIII.

15 A Protestant Allegory by Girolamo da Treviso. W/C 23 September 2013 removed for 3

month exhibition “Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm” at Tate Britain, 2October 2013 – 5 January 2014


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• Elizabeth of York : (British School c1490-1500) Henry VIII’s mother,daughter of Edward IV (Richard III’s brother) and representative ofthe Yorkist line. By marrying her, Henry VII had hoped to reconcilethe Lancastrian and Yorkist claimants to the throne. Elizabeth isbelieved to be the basis for the image of the Queen of Hearts on a

deck of cards.• Margaret of Beaufort, Countess of Richmond : Henry VIII’s

grandmother and a formidable lady! It was on her descent from Johnof Gaunt and his mistress, later third wife, Katherine Swynford, thatHenry VII based his somewhat thin claim to the throne. Her symbolwas a greyhound, one of the King’s Beasts.

• Family of Henry VIII : Artist unknown. This shows the line ofsuccession, with a posthumous portrait of Jane Seymour as Henry’swife, being the mother of his son and heir, Edward, later Edward VI(Henry was married to Kateryn Parr at the time, 1545). To the left andright are Henry’s two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth who have been

brought back into favour. The King’s fool, Will Somers, is shown inthe archway with a monkey on his shoulder. The female figure ispossibly Jane, Princess Mary’s fool.

• Whitehall Mural : private loan of a copy by Remigius van Leemput,1667, of the Whitehall Mural by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1537.There are only 2 copies in existence. The original mural wasdestroyed by fire in 1698. It shows Henry VIII in full dynastic glorywith his father, mother, and favourite wife, Jane Seymour, the motherof his son and heir.

• Edward VI : Henry’s only surviving son (ruled 1547-1553). He becameking at the age of 9 but was not a very healthy child and died at the

age of 15, when he was succeeded by his eldest sister Mary, daughterof Catherine of Aragon (after the brief reign of the nine days Queen,Jane).

Royal Pew (on left)16

Don’t Miss• The ceiling of the central room as you enter by Sir James Thornhill for

Queen Anne• The spectacular Tudor ceiling of the Chapel

The Royal Pew, which overlooks the Chapel, was opened up for the firsttime in seven years in October 2012 to display a replica of Henry VIII’scrown. It is from here that Henry would have heard Mass on feast or holydays. On other days, when he was anxious to go hunting, Henry would hearMass in his Privy Closet.

The crown is a potent symbol of royal and religious authority and this onewas made for either Henry VII or Henry VIII and would have been worn by

16 Royal Pew, recreation of Henry VIII’s crown, October 2012


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Henry VIII on special occasions, such as Epiphany. The crown was later usedat the coronation of each of Henry VIII’s children. The original crown wasmelted down in 1649 on the orders of Oliver Cromwell and the jewels soldoff. The crown has been reconstructed, based on Daniel Mytens’ 1631painting of Charles I, plus a detailed inventory of 1547.

Henry VIII refitted the Royal Pew to create the two Holyday Closets(rooms) at the west end of the Chapel, the doors to which can still be seenfrom the Gallery. The present arrangement shows the extensive alterationsmade by Christopher Wren for William and Mary and then Queen Anne.[For more information on the Chapel, please refer to Chapel Royal notes.].

The entrance to the Chapel is downstairs.

EXIT right down the Queen’s Stairs


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The Chapel Royal

The Chapel Royal is a ‘Royal Peculiar’, independent of the Church of England’s structures, owing its allegiance to HM The Queen. It has been in continuous use asa place of worship for about 500 years and there are daily services throughout the

year. Visitors are asked to respect this when visiting the Palace. Tours are notallowed in the Chapel but warders and very often chapel stewards are on dutywho will be able to answer any questions.

Don’t Miss• The Royal Pew (access via the Processional Route)• The Reredos• Look up to see the magnificent Tudor ceiling

Brief HistoryThe Chapel was built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the1520s, probably on or near the site of a chapel used fromabout 1236 by the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John ofJerusalem. It was a substantial building with anenormous double window at its east end, filled withstained glass. The designs were probably by ErhardSchon from Nurembourg and included the figures of aking and queen praying and images of Henry VIII,Katherine of Aragon and Princess Mary. Remains of thewindow structure can be found behind Queen Anne’s

eighteenth century reredos. The gallery forming theProcessional Route to the Chapel from the State apartments still survivesand is sometimes known as the Haunted Gallery. Beneath it ran a cloisterfor servants, giving access between the courtyards.

In 1535 work on the enlargement and embellishment of the Chapel wasbegun by Henry VIII (1509-47), the most important change being theaddition of the magnificent ceiling. Henry’s son, Edward VI (1547-53), wasbaptized and confirmed here in 1537 by his godfather, Archbishop ThomasCranmer, when he was two days old.

The Parliamentarian forces seized Hampton Court Palace in 1643 andremoved all the decorative fittings from the Chapel, and the ’Popish’pictures and superstitious images in the glass windows were demolished.Only the elaborate ceiling remained above what became a white paintedroom for preaching.

Protestant William III and Mary II (1689-1702) embarked on a modernisationof the Palace and also removed any signs of the Catholicism that had beenpractised under James II. Sir Christopher Wren carried out extensive workfor them in the English Baroque style, including the refitting of the RoyalPew. In 1710 he and William Hawksmoor successfully presented to Queen

Anne (1702-1714), a staunch upholder of Anglicanism, schemes forremodelling the body of the chapel again in the Baroque style. They


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included a grand timber reredos at the east end to replace the windowabove the High Altar, a painted scene by James Thornhill above it, theremoval of the Tudor window tracery and its replacement by largecasement windows, and the addition of panelling, box pews, an organ andnew sanctuary fittings plus the staircase from the Royal Pew to the body of

the Chapel. The work was completed in 1712. The Chapel underwentrestoration work to the ceiling and windows, in the nineteenth century, andto the roof in the twentieth century.

The Chapel CeilingNothing is known of Wolsey’s original ceiling but it is thought that it wasprobably flat. The existing pendant-vaulted ceiling was created for HenryVIII in 1535-36 and is one of the finest examples of its kind in England. Thedesigner was probably William Clement, who went on to create NonsuchPalace for Henry. The ceiling is made from Windsor Forest oak, which wascarved in a work’s yard established at Sonning on the river bank and then,

once completed, taken about 30miles down river to Hampton.One could say the ceiling waspre-fabricated. The carvingsconsist of Tudor rose andportcullis roundels, and pendantswith cherubs. The ceiling wasexecuted in white and thenpainted by hand in the bluecolour known as ‘byse’ anddecorated with gold leaf. The

English Sovereign’s motto Dieu etmon Droit (‘God and my right’originally expressing Edward III’s claim to the French throne) appears 32times showing Henry’s conviction that the Tudor dynasty was invested withDivine authority to rule. Queen Anne had the vault of the ceiling, withHenry’s original blue and stars, overpainted with white lead paint.Augustus Pugin directed the restoration of the ceiling in the second half ofthe nineteenth century and repainted the ceiling blue and added his ownplethora of stars.

The Ante-Chapel

This area under the Holy Day Closet did not have any pews until Victoriantimes. The eight columns supporting the Closet are thin fluted Doriccasings enclosing what was thought to be oak pillars, introduced whenWilliam and Mary had the floor lowered in the Closets above. A few yearsago the Royal Pew was closed due to structural damage. The oak casingswere removed from the pillars, which showed that the supports were pine,a less sturdy wood than oak. In the main part of the Chapel the stalls andbox-pews face inwards, avoiding the impropriety of worshippers turningtheir backs on either the altar or the monarch. The front choir pews haveboxes under them for small boys to stand on.


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The FontThe font was originally in All Hallows, Upper Thames Street, a church builtby Wren in the City of London, but was removed when the church wasdemolished in the eighteenth century. It was brought to the Chapel Royalin 1976 and moved to its present position in 1993.

FloorThe floor is marble and was laid in 1712. The original Tudor floor is thoughtto be just over seven inches below this floor but is not publicly visible.However it can be seen in the floor of the understairs cupboard.

The KneelersThe needlepoint hassocks were embroidered by palace ladies and regularworshippers following a major Chapel refurbishment in 1974. The designon each depicts images from the Chapel Royal or the Palace.

The AltarThe Altar was designed by Wren and the red Laudian ‘throw-over’ altarfrontal which covers it was made by the Royal School of Needlework in2004. This was for the service on 12 May, attended by HM The Queen andHRH The Duke of Edinburgh, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of theHampton Court Conference of 1604. The pulpit fall was made of brownoak, sycamore and ebony under the direction of Viscount Linley, TheQueen’s nephew, also to commemorate the Conference, and is probablythe newest artefact in the chapel. The Conference was called by James I ofEngland and VI Scotland and resulted in the Authorised Version of theBible of 1611, which is still used in the Chapel today.

When Queen Jane Seymour died in 1537, soon after the birth of her son(the future Edward VI) Henry VIII ordered that her heart be buried beneaththe altar. The altar cross was given in 1894 by a Grace and Favour residentin memory of her soldier husband, Capt. MD Davison, who died in 1885. Itwas designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to match the pair of seventeenthcentury candlesticks, given to the chapel by Charles II (1660-1685). Thegilded bronze processional cross is a replica of a 16th century Ethiopiancross, representing the Christian theme of eternal life, and was presentedto the Chapel Royal in 1969.

Altar Screen or ReredosThe design for this was chosen by Queen Anne from two submitted byNicholas Hawksmoor, on behalf of Sir Christopher Wren, in 1710 to replacethe window above the High Altar. It was carved in oak under the directionof Grinling Gibbons (as were all the other carvings in the Chapel) and wasprobably intended to be simply decorative in the English Baroque style butthe oval egg shape has always been a Christian symbol of the Resurrection.

The Memorial PanelsThe memorial panels honour those who gave their lives in the two WorldWars and who had lived or worked in Hampton Court Palace.


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The OrganThe organ on the south wall is an early 18th century Schreider instrumentbuilt for Queen Anne and installed in 1711. In that year Anne grantedGeorge Frideric Handel a pension for life and he became resident inEngland. It is possible that he played this organ.

The WindowsThe stained glass in the great double window at the east end of the chapelwas destroyed in the 1640s during the Commonwealth and the windowwas eventually bricked up. It is now completely hidden by Queen Anne’slarge oak reredos and was only re-discovered in 1981. It occupies almost allof the east wall and is of a unique design.

Beside the organ on the south wall is a trompe l’oeil (deceiving the eye)1window showing what was then the new Fountain Court designed by

Wren. It was painted in the 1690s and is attributed to either Sir JamesThornhill or Thomas Highmore. However if this was painted by Highmore,it was not up to his usual standard.

The walls between the upper windows were painted for Queen Anne andshow her royal cipher AR and her motto Semper Eadem (meaning ‘Alwaysthe Same’) which had also been the motto of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603).

The upper windows on the north and south walls are copies, made in 1894,of the original Tudor windows. The pattern was taken from the only

remaining original Tudor window structures concealed behind the trompe l’oeil window. The Tudor window frame is behind the plaster and can beseen as you walk up the stairs to the organ. The two East windows behindthe reredos wall can be seen from the lift.

Queen Anne’s Coat of Arms (over the Royal Pew)

This is a rare version as it was only used between1707 and 1714. The Acts of Union of 1706 and 1707united England and Scotland into a single state andparliament and in October 1707 the Parliament of

the United Kingdom sat for the first time. Anne’scoat of arms was changed in 1707 to reflect this.

EXIT through west door into the cloister

Look back at the Chapel Door:

Henry VIII and Jane Seymour’s Coats of Arms (See page 6) On either side of the chapel door there are two coats of arms held up bypairs of angels. The angels were made for Cardinal Wolsey but were later

repainted for Henry VIII. The arms on the left belong to Henry VIII and on


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the right to Jane Seymour. Jane’s coat of arms was never taken down,even though Henry married three more times after her death.

The Holy Day Closet can be seen via Henry VIII’s Apartments from theProcessional Route.

The Royal PewThe Royal Pew, which overlooks the Chapel, was opened up for the firsttime in seven years in October 2012 to display Henry VIII’s crown. It is fromhere that Henry would have heard Mass on feast or holy days. On otherdays, when he was anxious to go hunting, Henry would hear Mass in hisPrivy Closet.

The crown is a potent symbol of royal andreligious authority and this one was made foreither Henry VII or Henry VIII and would have

been worn by Henry VIII on special occasions,such as Epiphany. The original crown wasmelted down in 1649 on the orders of OliverCromwell and the jewels sold off. The crownhas been reconstructed, based on DanielMytens’ 1631 painting of Charles I plus a detailedinventory of 1547. The crown was later used atthe coronation of each of Henry VIII’s children.

Henry VIII refitted the Royal Pew to create the two Holyday Closets(rooms) at the west end of the Chapel, the doors to which can still be seen

from the Gallery. Previously there would have been one large room for theKing’s use. Under Henry a painted screen incorporating stained glassseparated the King’s private pew from that of the Queen. Facing the altar,the Closet on the left was for the King and the one on the right for theQueen, and it is now the Lady Chapel. Henry married Catherine Parr, hissixth and last wife, at Hampton Court Palace in 1543 but there is no firmevidence to show where this took place. The first royal marriage in theChapel was Henry’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Richmond(1519-1536) in 1534 to Mary, daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke ofNorfolk. The original Tudor ceiling can still be seen here and also above thestairs going down to the Chapel. The present arrangement, with a single

central room reserved for the monarch with rooms on either side for thegentlemen and ladies of the court, shows the extensive alterations made byChristopher Wren for William and Mary and then Queen Anne. The ceilingof the central room was painted by Sir James Thornhill for Queen Annewith a playful scene of cherubs holding up a crown and sword. ThomasHighmore was a specialist trompe l’oeil painter of three dimensionalillusions. The moulded and gilded carving around the central panel iscompletely convincing when seen from ground floor level and it is only onclose inspection that it can be seen that is painted flat on the ceiling.


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The Chapel Stairs There is a stairway installed by Christopher Wren which leads from theRoyal Pew down to the chapel. This was re-carpeted for The Queen’s visitin 2004 and is closed to the general public.

Henry VIII and Jane Seymour’s Coats of ArmsOutside the main entrance to the Chapel Royal

A The arms on the left are those of Henry VIII as King of England,Quarterly France and England. The France quarters adopted byEdward III claiming the throne of France remained on England’sRoyal Arms until 1801.

B The arms on the right are Henry VIII arms as a husband impaled(attached to) his wife Jane Seymour’s arms with its six quarters

1 The royal augmentation awarded by the king to the Seymourfamily in perpetuity. The Duke of Somerset, present head ofthe Seymour family, has this in the first quarter with theSeymour arms in the second one.

2 The Seymour arms.3- 6 Four quarterings from heraldic heiresses who married into

Seymour family.

C The motto ‘Dieu et Mon Droit’ is the same as on the left hand tabletand initials are those of ‘Henricus’ and ‘Ioanna’ linked by true lovers’knots. (The letter J was not invented until later in the 16th century).These arms were never taken down even though Henry married threetimes after her death.


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Henry VIII’s Kitchens (9 rooms)

Recommendations

Short visit: The Great KitchenLonger visit: Master Carpenter’s Court to The

Great Kitchen

Don’t Miss

• Fish Court - environmental architecture atits best

• Wolsey’s original kitchen, one of oldestparts of the palace (3rd kitchen)

• Henry VIII’s original great roasting fireplace(3rd kitchen)

Brief History

Hampton Court was originally a modest property belonging to the KnightsHospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. In 1494 they leased it tothe courtier, Giles Daubeney, who was to become Henry VII’s LordChancellor. He transformed the estate with major building works thatincluded a large kitchen on the site of the present kitchens. The kitchenwas extended by Hampton Court’s next owner, Cardinal Wolsey, and when

Henry VIII took over in 1529, he began a vast project to extend the kitchenblock even further as part of a massive building programme throughout thepalace. The work on the kitchen block was the first of the new palacebuildings to be completed, a sign of its importance to the successfuloperation of a palace. Henry probably first used his new kitchens duringhis three week stay in November and December 1531. He also constructeda range of timber-framed workhouses outside the main west gate of thepalace for noisy, smelly operations, such as the slaughtering and scaldinghouses, and potentially dangerous activities like the bake-houses, whichwere notorious for burning down. Sited on the river’s edge, they werelinked to timber landing stages to allow the delivery of provisions by barge.

Henry wanted his court to be magnificent. This was shown in his buildings,clothes, art – and food. The richness, variety and exoticism of the foodprovided by Henry, and the numbers catered for, was his way of displayinghis wealth and opulence: the abundance of meat, citrus fruit and almondsfrom the Mediterranean, sugar from Iran, spices from Africa and India,ginger from China.

Even though a large part of Henry VIII’s kitchens has either been takendown or is no longer accessible, it is still the largest surviving Renaissancekitchen in Europe. Henry had his own private kitchen and cooks situated just below his private lodgings so these kitchens were built to feed the sixhundred or so entitled to eat twice a day in the Great Hall, including


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guards, grooms and general court servants, and the higher status courtiersin the Great Watching Chamber. Henry’s kitchens were highly organised toprovide a streamlined, efficient production line of food: the capacity of theGreat Kitchen to serve meals was doubled, meals being prepared by ateam of over two hundred men and boys (no women!), and a second

serving place was added to the south, allowing twice as many servants asbefore to carry food up to the waiting courtiers. The extended GreatKitchen now contained six fireplaces. To its west there were three newsmall courtyards, surrounded by many specialised offices for boiling, pastrymaking, fruit and spices. The whole kitchen complex contained 55 rooms(including twenty kitchens) and three cellars. In Henry’s time there were 19departments with a number of Master Cooks, each with a team of Yeomenand Sergeants working for them. Record keeping at the palace wasmeticulous, which has provided us with a wealth of information.

During later periods of royal occupancy, the Tudor kitchens became

impractical and old fashioned and were updated to accommodate newdemands. Queen Elizabeth I’s privy kitchen was sited away from the oldkitchens and still survives as the Privy Kitchen Coffee Shop.

The kitchens are presented in a way that as closely as possible evoke thelook, sound and smell of the Tudor Kitchens of the 1530s. All the kitchenimplements have been made with reference to real and rare Tudorsurvivals.

Lord Chamberlain’s Court (formerly Greencloth Court) andMaster Carpenter’s Court (formerly Pastry Yard)

Don’t Miss• Seymour Gate (called Back Gate in Henry’s time), the great entrance

gate of the service wing - look through the arch opposite theentrance to the kitchens

• To the left and right are paned arched windows set in high redbrickwalls. The walls are topped with Tudor chimneys with theirdistinctive twisting patterns.

This would have been a hive of activity. All provisions were broughtthrough the service wing gate into Lord Chamberlain’s Court and under the

arch into Master Carpenter’s Court (a space big enough to turn a horse andcart around) where they were accounted for, put into store, or taken to oneof the kitchens. Accounts were kept by the officers of the ‘Clerks of the Board of the Green Cloth’, whose office lay over the outer gate and fromwhere they could monitor supplies coming into the palace. Not far fromthis office was the Jewel House, in which was held the coin needed to paythe palace suppliers as they delivered their goods. The Cofferer (KitchenAccountant) and his clerks also had their offices here and the offices andapartments of the Comptroller of the Kitchens were on the north side.Offices in Master Carpenter’s Court included the spicery, where herbs andspices were kept and which was also responsible for the supply of fruit; and

the chandlery where wax for candles and tapers and linen for the table


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were stored and distributed. Across the courtyard was the coalhouse,storing both charcoal, for the kitchen chaffing dishes, and luxurious sea-coal for burning in the king’s and queen’s rooms.

Now go through the main door marked ‘Henry VIII’s Kitchens’.

Butchery

Don’t Miss• Large raw joints of meat, chopping block, written orders/delivery

notes hanging on large hook on wall

This was one of the many smaller kitchens that would have been used forsimple preparatory work, in this case for the jointing of meat. The Tudorcourt ate vast quantities of meat, the amount of meat provided being asign of how rich you were.

The old door on the left at the top of the two steps takes you to the stairsleading to the Rainbow Room, so called after the last Grace and Favourresident, Mr E J Rainbow, who lived there until 1970 and had been Curatorof Pictures at Hampton Court Palace.

Go down the corridor; turn right into room with a small fireplace and a tablefull of pies

Boiling House (up small flight of stairs from room with pies)

Don’t Miss• Fire under copper pan

This would be one of several huge copper pans, which would hold about350 litres of liquid, powered by the fire in the room underneath, into whichyou would put whatever you wanted boiling, e.g. meat, vegetables. Therewould have been someone feeding the fire with sticks, cooks continuouslystirring the pot and, when the meat was cooked, it would be pulled out bythe flesh hook. If it was to go into pies, the cases would have been broughtover from the pastry kitchen.

Fish Court (Previously Paved Passage)

Don’t Miss• Mr Rainbow’s name is on the name plate to your left as you go into

Fish Court and you can see the direction of the staircase to his roomsin the ceiling before entering Fish Court

• On immediate left see letter box, bell pull, name plates, and Tudorbrickwork.

This looks just like a corridor with store rooms off to left and right but iseffectively a Tudor fridge in the middle of the kitchen complex, allowing forthe short term storage of raw ingredients “environmental architecture at its


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best”. The space is narrow, running north to south, so that the sun doesnot shine, and is open to the air, so that the stone stores stay cool. On theright was the wet fish store and on the other side it is believed was a storefor grain. There was also a meat store. The door at the west end of thecourt, and immediately on your left as you enter, would have led to the

pastry house and above that was the confectionary, where delicate sweetswere made for the Royal table by the only woman recorded at work in thekitchens.

The Great Kitchen

Don’t Miss• The timbered roof gives an idea of the size of the original kitchen.

The kitchen started out as one room, but is now divided into three. It wasoriginally used just for roasting fresh meat, mostly beef, which was cookedon spits over six great fires. Over time the Tudor kitchens became lessimportant and in 1717 George I built an additional kitchen (The GeorgianHouse) solely to produce food from his native Hanover. On his accessionto the throne in 1760, George III chose not to live at Hampton Court andfrom the 1770s the palace was used to provide grace and favouraccommodation which entailed structural alterations. The western part ofthe kitchen came to contain a three storey apartment of 42 rooms, the lastoccupant being Lady Baden Powell who lived there from 1942. At somepoint an annex was added for the use of guests and servants and abathroom had even been inserted into one of the great fireplaces! As partof the current re-presentation, the removal of the nineteenth century workwas balanced by leaving evidence in the fabric of the wall showing wherethese later structures had been.

The roof was rebuilt in the nineteenth century but you can still see twooriginal roof trusses (supports) at either end of the kitchen as well as fourpairs of stone corbels (arch supports) which would have supported thetrusses.

Experimental food historians work in theHampton Court kitchens. They cook as part

of their research using Tudor cookingtechniques with hand-made copies of Tudorutensils so that they can replicate the foodproduced by the Tudors. On special eventdays the public can witness the food beingprepared and cooked and then served andeaten by the historic kitchens team incostume. They are usually at the Palace on the first weekend of eachmonth – please check website for details.


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First Kitchen

Don�

visitor route notes 2015

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