Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > The Story of Hampton Court Palace > Status Update

‘Nicholas Ridley, the chain-smoking Secretary of State for the Environment, had been trapped in the life when visiting Hampton Court; when he was released he found that no single body could be found to be responsible for the palace. Following that incident, in 1989 the palace and the other ‘unoccupied’ royal palaces... came together under one body.’

‘The most notable was that of the Great Hall itself. Left clear and relatively bare by Wyatt, it was transformed between 1840 and 1846 into a state that Jesse believed Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII would have recognised instantly. The great series of Abraham tapestries, one of the glories to have survived from Henry VIII’s reign, was returned from the King’s State Apartments.’

‘Meanwhile, the palace’s accessibility increased with the building in 1753 of the first bridge across the Thames. It began to attract visitors, who paid the housekeeper a small sum to allow them to enjoy the architectural and artistic splendours. They very first guidebook to Hampton Court Palace was published in 1742, as the second volume of George Bickham’s Deliciae Britannicae.’

‘Their initial thinking was radical: to demolish nearly all of the Tudor palace, retaining only Henry VIII’s Great Hall at the centre of a grand Baroque entrance facing north... It quickly became apparent that such a huge project would be difficult ro finance and slow to build. Asthmatic William was anxious to move quickly. A greater part of the Tudor palace would have to be reused.’

‘Under James I, Hampton Court benefited from a low but continuing level of expenditure on maintenance. The Great Hall was repaired in 1614, the Astronomical Clock was repainted in 1619, and the ceiling of the Paradise Chamber underwent lengthy restoration. The royal court fell into the pattern of an annual autumnal visit to the palace’

‘He had probably met the previous owner, Giles Daubeney, at court. After Daubeney’s death, his son was glad to pass the lease on to Wolsey in 1541 to clear his father’s debts. Wolsey never managed to obtain the freehold of Hampton Court from the Knights Hospitallers; it fell to Henry VIII, the palace’s next owner, to achieve this.’

‘Daubeney tried to acquire the freehold to the manor, but got a ninety-nine-year lease from the Knights Hospitallers instead, with the right to ‘take, alter, transpose, break, change, make and new build’ the house according to his wishes. Daubeney took advantage of this to make great improvements to the manor, and some of his work still survives.’

Had to start this before my interview at Hampton Court Palace tomorrow