Images: gatehouse of St. Augustine’s abbey, Canterbury; ruins of church with Tudor lodging wing remnants (photos: C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1539
St. Augustine’s abbey had formerly hosted visits from royalty. Upon the suppression of the monasteries, this Canterbury establishment was converted into a royal residence within convenient distance of the Cinque Ports. Added to the urgency of the reconstruction was the planned arrival of Anne of Cleves, who arrived less than a week after a hasty building campaign lasting from October through December 1539. The abbot’s former lodgings were altered into chambers for the king, and a new suite for the queen was made to adjoin these.
The incorporation of separate sets of en suite chambers for king and queen, each on the ground level (rather than stacked above one another) was typical of the later palaces in Henry’s reign. The accounts indicate that each set of royal chambers included a watching chamber, presence (and dining) chamber, privy chamber, bedchamber, withdrawing chamber, chapel and closet. In addition, there was a timber framed main hall covered by a ‘great vawte roof” (or arch-braced ceiling, as Colvin notes.) The king subsequently stayed at Canterbury more than once, but by 1541, he had given orders for the abbey church to be dismantled and used to provide materials for his military works.
Though most of the site is ruinous today, English Heritage maintains the remnants along with a museum of the abbey and palace.