London Off the Beaten Path Tips by ZanieOR

When we visited Hampton Court Palace, the gardens were among the highlights. The palace sits on 60 acres and there are a number of gardens of different sizes and styles.
King Henry VIII apparently devoted a lot of attention to developing formal gardens, and later kings made improvements based on their taste.
One of the costumed guides was very interesting talking about the development and care of the gardens. The largest most formal was was restored to earlier grandeur in 1992 and 1995. It was beautiful in June and I imagine different flowers were blooming at different times of year, though actually flowers were only one feature of the garden. It was very structured and very beautiful.
I read in one place the gardens were "a living tapestry of history from Henry VIII to George II" and that seemed like a good description of such a historic place.

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Just by walking around the gardens and grounds of Hampton Court there were so many different gorgeous views.

This is a view from the opposite side of the big formal garden in the last tip, showing the palace in the background.

The weather was great the day we were there, mostly sunny and warm with enough clouds to shade and cool everything off when it threatened to get too hot.

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