Images: Hampton court front entrance, great hall hammerbeam roof, service courts for kitchen, great hall exterior, batten ceiling from 1520s, great kitchen detail, base court, view from river, view of Tudor-reconstruction garden from king’s window; artist’s view of Great Watching chamber from late sixteenth century; plan of Hampton court; view of Hampton court by Wyngaerde (photos: C. A. Stanford; plan by Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office courtesy of the Open Government License Agreement; Wyngaerde by the Ashmolean museum, Oxford).
Acquired: ca. 1527
The manor of Hampton Court was initially built as a country residence for an eminent prelate on the rise. Thomas Wolsey acquired a 99 year lease on a modest manor house property owned by the Knights Hospitaller and promptly set about rebuilding and and expanding by employing an army of talented workers to create a double-courtyard residence with a magnificent gatehouse, large hall, elegant chapel, fashionable galleries and impressive state rooms. This house, which was built up from 1515–25, did such a good job of entertaining the king and court that Henry required the property from his chancellor in an “exchange.” Eventually the king’s lawyers found a way to acquire the land lease as well and Henry indulged in further building and rebuilding campaigns at Hampton Court.
This building work is detailed accounts from 1529–38, which note not only the creation of such structures as a “bayne” (baths) tower and elaborate ceiling “vawtes” for the new great hall, but also the names of the individual workmen and their rate of pay. The later account books, from 1538 onward, were kept under a different system that treated the building costs as lump sums rather than in itemized fashion.
By the end of Henry’s reign Hampton Court was second largest of all the Tudor palaces (eclipsed only by Whitehall). Additions and alterations from later eras, in particular the Georgian period, have at times made it difficult to reconstruct all of the Tudor-era features, but Historic Royal Palaces has restored a number of areas of the palace to their early sixteenth-century appearance. Of all of Henry’s residences, Hampton Court is probably the best known among visitors today.
*Click here to see the women vendors that worked at this site.