Hampton Court Palace An introduction to the visitor routes Page 1 of 62 January 2014 Summary of Routes Dates for Key People Cardinal Wolsey, c1475-1530. Henry VIII, 1509-47 William III, 1689-1702 and Mary II, 1689-94 Queen Anne, 1702-14, Prince George of Denmark, 1702-08 George 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; the Royal Pew designed by Sir Christopher Wren for William III and Mary 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 Cardinal Wolsey’s collection • Very important Tudor dynasty paintings and the iconic portrait of Henry VIII (after Holbein) • Processional Route and Haunted Gallery • Allow 35-45 minutes The Chapel Royal The Chapel Royal has been in continuous use as a place of worship for about 500 years. It is a part of 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 the Baroque style and remodelled the body of the Chapel for Queen Anne. • Highlights: The Royal Pew; the Chapel ceiling, whose restoration was directed by Augustus Pugin in the second half of the 19th century; the Altar Screen or Reredos designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor for Queen Anne and carved by Grinling Gibbons • Trompe l’oeil window showing Fountain Court; walls painted for Queen Anne • Allow 20 minutes Page 2 of 62 January 2014 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 great roasting fireplace • Kitchens presented to evoke the look, sound and smell of the Tudor kitchens of the 1530s, when the kitchens would have been preparing food for over 600 people, twice a day. All the kitchen implements are based on Tudor survivals. • Experimental food historians work in the kitchens as part of their research into Tudor food. See website for details of special event days when you can 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 Prince and 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 Thomas Wolsey 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 and wood carvings; Queen Mary’s blue and white porcelain collection • Notice how the decoration and furnishings become increasingly elaborate and costly as you progress through the state rooms, and the contrast between the formal rooms upstairs and William’s private apartments 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 Art Route opens. The majority of the Georgian Private Apartments will be opened up as part of the Georgian exhibition at Easter 2014 • Tudor, Stuart, Georgian periods • Cumberland Suite designed by the fashionable 18th century Page 3 of 62 January 2014 architect William Kent in the Gothic style for the Duke of Cumberland, youngest son of George II and Caroline; the Cartoon Gallery designed by Sir Christopher Wren for William III • Highlights: Italian Old Masters in the Cumberland Suite; Wolsey Closet, part of the original Tudor palace • Tapestries, paintings, Grinling Gibbons’ carvings, Chinese and Japanese porcelain • Allow 20-30 minutes Page 4 of 62 January 2014 The Courtyards Recommendations Don’t Miss • Da Maiano Terracotta Roundels • Henry VIII’s Gatehouse • Henry VIII’s Great Hall (outside view) • Astronomical Clock Brief History Hampton Court Palace is not one building, but many, gathered around a series 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 Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem providing guest house facilities and renting out land. Members of the royal family had been using it as a staging post between their riverside properties since the 14th century. In 1494 it was leased to the courtier, Giles Daubeney, who was to become Henry VII’s Lord Chancellor, and who transformed the estate into a courtier’s brick built manor house, grand enough to receive the royal family. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey leased the house in 1514 and turned it into accommodation sumptuous enough to entertain Henry VIII and receive foreign dignitaries. By 1525 Hampton Court was a palace fit for a king and Wolsey formally presented it to Henry, although Wolsey continued to use it until he fell from favour and Henry VIII took it over in 1529. Henry then embarked on massive building programmes which lasted until 1539. The next big change came in 1689 when, soon after their accession, William III and Mary II commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to draw up plans to turn Hampton Court into a baroque palace to rival Louis XIV’s Versailles in France. The original plans had involved pulling down the whole of the Tudor palace, apart from the Great Hall. However, owing to lack of time and money, Wren was restricted to rebuilding the King’s and Queen’s main apartments, which can be seen from Fountain Court, so much more of the Tudor palace remains than had been originally planned. Outer Green Court Henry and important guests would have arrived by river and entered the palace through the Privy Garden via the Water Gallery. This had been constructed in 1536, and incorporated a landing stage for the king’s barge Page 5 of 62 January 2014 with a pleasure gallery above. However the main land approach to the palace was from the west. To begin with the front of the palace was a building site but once Henry’s major building work had been completed, the area in front of the palace was cleared, providing the opportunity to create 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 the north 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 installed under Sir Christopher Wren. It consists of four piers with bases, and pedestals made of Portland stone. The central piers on either side of the gate show the two most famous of the heraldic royal beasts, the lion and the unicorn, and were erected in July 1701. The two outer piers with a suit of armour with flags, shield and axe, bow, arrow and trumpet were erected in 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 John Oliver. 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 is a 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 the Barrack Block canteen which had been there since the 1870s. Pear Tree Gate Pear Tree Gate is the entrance to the Clore Learning Centre. It was installed 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, who also made the unique door handles for the new building. In the 15th and 16th centuries orchards stood on the site and reference is made to this by the ‘tree of knowledge’ on the gate. Barrack Block Originally Charles II’s timber framed cavalry barrack block was sited here. In 1689 this was replaced by two separate blocks of barracks for William III’s Foot and Horse Guards as protection for the new and vulnerable monarch. 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 metal stable posts can still be seen there. It is thought there would have been room for c40 horses on the ground floor and c40 cavalry men in the above two rooms.