"Hampton Court Palace" Surrey by kathycollins

Surrey Travel Guide: 193 reviews and 572 photos

the Privy Gardens, Hampton Court - Surrey

The only Surrey location I visited was Hampton Court Palace. This magnificent Palace was built by Archbishop Wolsey in 1514. His benefactor and regent, Henry VIII, liked it so much Wolsey made the life-affirming decision to "give" it to Henry!
A tour of the palace includes
The Tudor Kitchens with a sound guide (25 minutes)

A costumed guided tour or sound guide tour of Henry VIII's State Apartments (35 minutes)

A costumed guided tour or sound guide tour of the King's Apartments (35 minutes)

The Georgian Rooms with a sound guide (40 minutes)

Walk through the Queen's Apartments (20 minutes)

Walk through the Wolsey Rooms and Renaissance Picture Gallery (25 minutes)

And then there's the gardens!!!
The Privy Garden
Knot Garden
Pond Gardens
Lower Orangery
Great Vine
Banqueting House
The Great Fountain Garden
Home Park
Royal Tennis Court
The Maze
Tiltyard

Henry VIII's clock

Time flies during a visit to Hampton Court - fortunatley there's a phenomenal timepiece in the Clock Courtyard -
the famous Astronomical Clock made for Henry VIII in 1540 by Nicholas Oursian, Devisor of the King's Horologies (clocks). It shows the hour, month, day, number of days since the beginning of the year, the phases of the moon and the time of high water at London Bridge - vital information in the days when tides governed travel to and from the palace. The sun revolves around the earth as the clock was designed before the discoveries of Galileo and Copernicus.

the West Front Entrance

Hampton Court - West Front

From the time it was first built until the 1660s, Hampton Court, like most of the great houses near London, was approached by water. Today, the usual approach is by road and the main entrance is through Trophy Gate, which bears the arms of William III (1689-1702).

Ahead lies the West Front of the palace begun by Cardinal Wolsey (c1475-1530) and completed for Henry VIII (1509-47). The central gatehouse was originally two storeys higher but was reduced in height in 1771-3 as it was found to be unstable. The wings to the left and right of the gatehouse were added by Henry VIII and once contained the Great House of Easement (communal lavatories) and the kitchens. On the turrets either side of the gatehouse are terracotta roundels with the heads of Roman emperors. Eight of these roundels were made for Cardinal Wolsey in 1521 by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Giovanni da Maiano.

Pros and Cons

Pros:a history buff's dream
In a nutshell:well worth a daytrip from London!

Last visit to Surrey: May 2003
Intro Written Aug 10, 2003
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Click to see the subcaption at the loos - Surrey

Train from London to Hampton Court Transportation (1)

We walked to Victoria Station, took the South Central Train to Clapham Junction, then the South West train to Hampton... more travel advice

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Written Aug 10, 2003

6 photos

Day 2 Hampton Court and Kensington

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Comments (3)

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deeper_blue Nov 27, 2004 at 7:32 PM

nice start and nice pics
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Fen Mar 10, 2004 at 5:04 AM

Very nice pics of Hampton Court, I should do a page on it, as I live 20mins away :-)
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IrishAmerican Aug 27, 2003 at 4:30 AM

Great tour of Hampton Court! Love to see more of your garden pics!