Image: Waynflete tower, Esher, from street (photo: C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1538
An episcopal palace for the diocese of Winchester, Esher came under the building aegis of two architecturally minded churchmen: William Waynflete and Thomas Wolsey. After the latter’s fall from power in 1530, Henry VIII ordered the new gallery Wolsey had installed at Esher to be removed and set up at the king’s palace of Whitehall. But it was not until several years later that Henry took possession of the house by forcing its current owner, Bishop Gardiner, into an (unequal) property exchange. The manor of Esher then became part of the properties of Hampton Court until Queen Mary restored it to the diocese of Winchester.
Of the former house, only the elegant twin-towered, four-storied brick gatehouse, built in the 1460s by Bishop Waynflete, survives. The site is now a private residence.