Today we have decided to take the train out to Hampton Court Palace. This involves going to Paddington Station and transferring to the Hampton Court train.
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It has not been inhabited by the British royal family since the 18th century. It was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII, circa 1514; in 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was passed to the King, who enlarged it.
The following century, William III's massive rebuilding and expansion project intended to rival Versailles was begun. Work halted in 1694, leaving the palace in two distinct contrasting architectural styles, domestic Tudor and Baroque. While the palace's styles are an accident of fate, a unity exists due to the use of pink bricks and a symmetrical, albeit vague, balancing of successive low wings. Along with St. James's Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many owned by Henry VIII.
In fact the touring of the palace is done in several stages. The first we toured was Henry VIII’s Apartments. The first room we visited was the Great Hall which is the palace's largest and most impressive room, with an ornate carved-wood ceiling and a collection of Flemish tapestries that date back to the 1540s. The tapestries, each of which is said to have cost the equivalent of a modern-day battleship, are maintained by a world-renowned Textile Conservation Studio on the palace grounds. There are several other impressive rooms we toured as well including the Chapel Royal, where Henry VIII worshipped, which is still a consecrated Anglican church. While we were touring we were entertained with a short drama about Henry’s wedding to Anne of Cleve. Threaded through the tour of the State Apartments was a history of Henry VIII and his wives.
Next we toured Henry VIII’s kitchens. In the Tudor Kitchens of Hampton Court Palace, which are reconstructed kitchens, once occupied 50 rooms of the palace, a team of "experimental archaeologists" study everyday palace life in Henry VIII's time by cooking, eating, and working with implements and techniques from the 1500s. They even make their own clothes, which they wear both on the job and in their living quarters within the palace.
Our next tour was Young Henry VIII’s story. We walked through several rooms where Henry VIII’s early life story was told. The story was often written on the back of straight back chairs (modern) and arranged to ensure the sequence was clear.
Williams III apartments were next on our list to tour where we toured several rooms with period furniture. Such rooms included the King’s Guard room, the Privy Chamber, the Great Bed Chamber and the long narrow room called the Lower Orangery.
Our next tour was the Mary II’s Apartments. Again we toured the rooms in the same way a visitor might expect to see the rooms in Queen Mary’s day. We visited the rooms in the following order: the Queen’s Guard Chamber, the Queens Presence Chamber, the Public Dining Room, the Queen’s Drawing Room and ended in the Queen’s Gallery.
We next travelled through the Georgian Private Apartments and I am trying to remember something about these apartments. Unfortunately they did not impress me much even though we did walk through the Cartoon Gallery (The original meaning was in fine art where it referred to a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting or tapestry) and the Communications Gallery and finally the Wolsey Closet. The "Wolsey Closet" is a room containing many original Tudor pieces from other parts of the palace.
We finished our tour of Hampton Court by heading out to the Palace Gardens. However by this time it is starting to get late so we do not spend too much time looking at the gardens or fountains but instead head over to the Maze. We of course had to find our way in and then out of the maze which is always a bit of fun.
By the time we got back to our hotel area it was after 5 pm so even though we wanted to have a shorter and easier day, we managed to fill the day up.
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