Visit Hampton Court Palace to plan your visit.

”Why come ye not to Court?

To which Court?

To the King’s Court

Or to Hampton Court?

Nay to the King’s Court.

The King’s Court

Should have the excellence

But Hampton Court

Hath the pre-eminence”

Hampton Court Palace was originally built by Cardinal Wolsey during the reign of Henry VIII. It was so grand that it outshone the palaces belonging to the king, as the above quote reflects. Shortly after Cardinal Wolsey completed construction of his majestic palace, he gave it to Henry VIII in an attempt to keep the king’s favor during the sordid Anne Boleyn affair. Cardinal Wolsey’s plan failed and he died a short time later in disgrace. Successive monarchs rebuilt and added on to the palace until little remains from Tudor times, but it is still a grand sight to behold.

The easiest way to get to Hampton Court Palace is to take the train from Waterloo Station to Hampton Court Station. You can purchase a ticket from the self-service kiosks with a credit card or cash. Once you arrive at Hampton Court Station, the palace is a short walk from the train platform. Just exit the train platform and walk over the bridge across the river.

When I visited on a drizzly day in February, I was fortunate enough to be the first visitor of the day. The day was gray and overcast and perfect for exploring the inside of a centuries-old castle. Fortunately, it cleared up later in the morning just enough to venture into the gardens for a little bit. It seemed like I had the palace to myself for most of the morning, but the number of visitors had started to pick up in the early afternoon as I was leaving, so I would highly recommend arriving in the morning to try to avoid the crowds.

Allow yourself plenty of time to explore the palace and gardens. Make time for one of the costumed guided tours in addition to extensive exploration on your own. Audio guide tours are also available. The tour schedules can be found online if you would like to plan before you go.

You can save yourself a little bit of time and money by buying your tickets online before your visit. Also, if you are going to be visiting The Tower of London or Kensington Palace, you can get a combination ticket for significant savings over individual ticket prices.

For more information on the gardens and the Palace, visit http://www.hrp.org.uk/. The website has a lot of information and gives a detailed history of the inhabitants of the palace and the changes that were made to the building from its construction to 1986 when fire destroyed most of King’s apartments.

There are bookshops throughout the Palace that sell postcards, various guidebooks of the Royal palaces, books on the history of the royal family in Great Britain as well as jams, honey and candy.

But there is more to see. You haven’t seen the Wolsey rooms yet with Renaissance ceilings and then there is the Renaissance picture gallery that has paintings by van Cleve, Holbein, Gheraerdts, Bassano, Tintoretto, Titian, Lotto, del Sarto, Bronzino, Bellini, Raphael, Cranach, Brueghel. Wolsey was a cardinal in the times of Henry VIII and the owner of the palace before Henry VIII took it from him since Wolsey fell out of king’s favor.

And then there are the King’s apartments that you enter from the Clock Court by a large staircase with magnificent frescoes on the walls and ceiling showing William III, for whom the apartments were built, as Alexander the Great conquering the Stuarts just as Alexander the Great triumphed over Ceasars. These are the apartments that were damaged by fire in 1986 and it took 6 years to restore everything. The Guard room has walls covered with circular and semi-circular ornaments made of antique pistols, guns, knives and drums (very creative!). On both sides of the Dining room almost like mirror images are the throne rooms of the king and queen with a throne under the red canopy and the portraits of the royals on the walls. From these rooms there is a great view of the manicured gardens with mazes, groomed trees and flowers. Then there is another king’s Bedchamber with very beautiful vaulted ceiling and a mirror with violet crystal frame ending in a crown at the top. When you walk down to the first floor, there are several rooms here with paintings by Van Dyck, Bassano, Coello, and the Orangery which is really just a large gallery of statues, and of course another Dining room (king’s private dining room) with gold-plated plates and tea carafes. The originals made of solid gold are in the Tower of London on display under a heavy glass. Continued in Part V