Second day in England and today we decided to head out to the countryside and visit Hampton Court Palace. Originally belonging to Thomas Wolsey (aka Cardinal Wolsey), construction began in 1515 and in 1529, Wolsey gave it to King Henry VIII. The palace is most noted has having been one of Henry’s principal residences but it was gradually expanded over the years by succeeding monarchs, most notably William III and Mary II and George II.
Ann Boleyn’s Gate
Hampton Court is not only a palace, but it also has extensive gardens such as the Rose Garden…
And extensive forested areas such as “The Wilderness”…
The Wilderness is especially interesting in that it was originally built in the 17th Century as a place for courtiers to “get lost” and encounter others “by accident”…one can draw many conclusions from this but when we visited, it was more like a series of jogging paths. 🙂
After looking around outside for a bit, we decided to go inside and naturally we homed in on the Tudor section first, most notably Henry VIII’s apartments:
The courtyard leading up to Henry VIII’s apartments.
And finally, inside to the Great Hall:
The interiors are largely stone and brickwork with wood paneling in places and while it was moderate weather on the day that we visited, it didn’t take much imagination to realize just how cold Hampton Court could get in Winter (perhaps it’s a good thing that we were not able to visit the last time we were in England in December 2018).
Stained glass windows in the Watching Tower- It turns out that the these windows were installed during the 19th Century.
The Chapel Royal- Picture-taking wasn’t allowed inside so this was obtained off the net.
And here’s some portraiture we encountered as we worked our way through:
Charles V, 1500-1558; An early portrait by an unknown artist- Not the most flattering of portraits.
Francis I, King of France, 1494-1547
One of the most interesting things was the living history interaction programs that are presented at Hampton Court. One such program was when two interpreters portraying Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr answered questions from the public in regard to their relationship with Henry, life at Court, et al. It was both entertaining and educational.
There’s a lot more at Hampton Court Palace that we explored but unfortunately, the battery in our phones were diminishing rapidly so we were unable to get anymore pictures. Just for completeness, below are some borrowed pictures of a few of the expansions that were built on after Henry’s reign:
The Fountain Court, designed by Christopher Wren during the reign of William & Mary.
One of William III’s private apartments.
The King’s Staircase
The Queen’s Staircase
Overall, it was a wonderful experience and there’s far more there than we were able to view. It’s definitely one of those places that has to be experienced a few time over. 🙂