Hampton Court Palace, London

I've wanted to visit Hampton Court for absolutely ages, it's been on my "list of things to do" for about five years now. Finally, after much delay, I achieved my goal on the May bank holiday.

History

Hampton Court is probably best known as Henry VIII's royal palace, but in fact it was built by Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's right hand man. Since Henry seized it from Wolsey (sorry, was given it by Wolsey...) it has ...
...to be able to reach Hampton Court in just 20 minutes by car - parking costs £3.50 on the palace grounds, and slightly less at the nearby alternative car parks. To get there by train would take us about an hour - there are trains to Hampton Court station from London Waterloo via Clapham Junction that take just over 30 minutes to get there.

Unless you have an A-Z and a good navigator or know the route, I'd advise against travelling by ... more

I've wanted to visit Hampton Court for absolutely ages, it's been on my "list of things to do" for about five years now. Finally, after much delay, I achieved my goal on the May bank holiday.

History

Hampton Court is probably best known as Henry VIII's royal palace, but in fact it was built by Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's right hand man. Since Henry seized it from Wolsey (sorry, was given it by Wolsey...) it has been extensively modified by various monarchs from Elizabeth I through William and Mary and Queen Anne.

Various grace and favour apartments were established in the buildings in the early 1800s, which led to further changes in layout and use, and although these apartments are no longer allocated to people there are still a few people living there. A new exhibition at the palace when we visited allowed us to view one of these apartments, and see how they were accessed and so on. It was interesting to see, and I had no idea that so many people - and such a wide variety - lived in those circumstances.

Getting there

We are lucky, living in south London, to be able to reach Hampton Court in just 20 minutes by car - parking costs £3.50 on the palace grounds, and slightly less at the nearby alternative car parks. To get there by train would take us about an hour - there are trains to Hampton Court station from London Waterloo via Clapham Junction that take just over 30 minutes to get there.

Unless you have an A-Z and a good navigator or know the route, I'd advise against travelling by car as the traffic is frequently fairly awful, especially if there's racing on at Kempton Park, which is just up the road - worth checking before you set off.

Getting in

As I mentioned, we chose to park at the palace, and to my surprise we had our choice of parking spaces. We were there fairly early, admittedly, but I was expecting it to be much busier on a bank holiday than it seemed to be. The carpark filled up later in the morning, but there seemed to be spaces available for everyone who wanted them.

Despite fairly extensive building work taking place around the edge of the carpark, finding the ticket office was easy enough, and there were plenty of signs pointing the way.

The ticket office was doing a brisk business, but we only had to wait for a minute or so before we could get our tickets. The only problem I had with it was that the entrance and exit to the office were up the same short flight of stairs. As these were rather narrow, there was a bit of to and fro as people could only go in or out, not both at the same time. I would imagine that on busy days this would get rather irritating and mean that the ticket office got crowded quite quickly.

From the ticket office, it's just a short walk up the main driveway towards the entrance of the palace itself.

The entrance

Your ticket is checked at the entrance to the palace, to ensure you've got the sort that lets you into the buildings. You walk over what used to be the moat - it's a grassy ditch now - and through a large door that leads into the first of many courtyards. As we walked through the door we were handed a leaflet that gave a short timetable of what was going on during the day.

Every day at various times throughout Hampton Court there are people dressed in period costume who give talks on different aspects of life at the court. Our trip coincided with a short festival event that concentrated on the Tudor kitchen (more details below). And a few minutes after we entered (just enough time to get our bearings and watch a short video about the place narrated by Sir Ian McKellan near the Great Hall) we went back to the entrance to see "the arrival of Henry VIII". For this, the huge gates at the entrance were shut, meaning that visitors arriving during this time had to wait to get inside. Some of them, however, found that they were given parts to play in the court, particularly children who seemed to become flag bearers with some regularity. Then, the gates were opened and the "king" and his courtiers entered - there was an Anne Boleyn, as well as Queen Katherine (of Aragon), Thomas More, and various others. They were greeted by Cardinal Wolsey in the first courtyard, amid much double entendre and knowing remarks, many directed at Anne Boleyn.

The State rooms

From the main courtyard, the party led the way into the Great Hall, which we'd briefly visited earlier to watch the video. This time, the king and his gang led the way, and we watched a jester amuse the party inside, with riddles and juggling. This involved some audience participation, but only for a couple of people (much to the relief of everyone else!). Thomas More roamed the crowd, preventing people from taking photographs of the spectacle (photography isn't permitted inside most of Hampton Court, with a few exceptions).

From the great hall, we left the courtiers to it and wandered off to find the state apartments belonging to the real-life versions. There are quite a few state rooms at Hampton Court, and the whole place is rather a rabbit warren of corridors and connecting rooms - it's easy to lose your sense of direction and get lost.

All of the state apartments were magnificent, but I thought they were rather lacking in any explanation. I hate the ubiquitous audio tour of stately homes, and refuse to use the things, but at Hampton Court, without one you were rather lost - there were very few notes to explain what things were and who/where they came from, which was a real shame. Where there were explanations posted alongside, they were short and informative and well worth reading. There were also relatively few staff around when we visited, so we couldn't really ask them for specific information, although the leaflet claimed that costumed staff were around the palace throughout the day.

On a plus point, at least the audio tour guides are included in the cost of your ticket, unlike other places I could mention which charge an extra chunk of cash for the rather dubious pleasure.

The kitchens

The kitchens were one of my favourite parts of our visit. This is, however, in spite of the first room that you enter, which contains a model of the kitchen rooms behind glass, with a recorded voice over and drippy music and a (possibly faulty) spotlight pointing at the room the voice over was referring to.

The kitches are huge, with many rooms fulfilling many different functions - from rooms specifically for making pies, to roasting, washing up, and so on. Overall, the kitchen was one of the most important places in the palace, and monarchs frequently positioned their apartments directly above the kitchen to make use of all the heat it generated (and stand a better chance of receiving their food while it was still warm!). On the day we visited, Hampton Court had a special exhibition going on that included role players working in the kitchens. We came across men (only men worked in the kitchens at the time) making pies, roasting an enormous joint of beef, making table decorations from clay, and many other things. All of the men were happy to chat about what they were doing, and one of them let me look through his historical recipe book that included recipes as they were used during Henry's time. The recipes were difficult to read, as they were written in middle english rather than the up to date kind, but interesting for all that - I had to have some help translating various culinary terms as they were used in ways that even I, as a keen cook, didn't recognise.

The roasting spit was very interesting, and the man doing the turning spoke extensively about the right way to roast meat (turning very frequently so that the juices all remain inside rather than seeping out to be made into gravy, for what it's worth). Some of the kids (and adults) visiting got the chance to turn the spit, but what surprised me was that the poor chap had been sat there for well over three hours, with at least another hour to go, at the time we spoke to him.

Later that afternoon, the men sat down to a fine meal consisting of all the dishes they had made. This meal was also conducted in the proper period manner, and many of the visitors turned up to watch the spectacle, including us. Again, we were specifically invited to chat and ask questions about different things - the way they ate, what implements were available, the use of the napkin (lay it over your left shoulder to wipe dirty/greasy fingers on, if you were wondering), how food was served, and so on. Sadly we weren't allowed to actually try any of the food, for health and safety reasons, but it certainly looked and smelled very good.

Sadly, I don't think that this display takes place every day, although I understand that there usually is *something* happening in the kitchens at Hampton Court. It really made the experience come to life, and the men (all in costume, by the way) definitely knew there stuff and were happy to explain things to all and sundry.

The garden

You can choose to visit only the gardens of this palace, and I must say that I believe it would be worth spending a lot of time in them on a nice day.

The gardens are extensive - there's about 60 acres in total - and vary from wildflower areas that look more like meadow than anything you'd expect to find in a palace, to much more traditional, highly manicured lawns and flower beds. There are also many statues and fountains scattered around, and even a canal that was built in the grounds.

I was amazed by the gardens, they really were beautiful, even given that we went in early May when you'd expect things to be flowering. I was disappointed that we couldn't get into some of the different gardens, and there were "keep off the grass" signs in the formal areas - which were ignored by many people, without any apparent intervention by staff.

You can take a carriage ride around the gardens, costing around £15 per carriage which holds 4 or 5 people. Although we didn't do this, I'm planning a return visit when we'll be able to.

The maze

The maze at Hampton Court is world famous, not surprising given its age! It was planted over 300 years ago for William of Orange (William III). There's about half a mile of paths inside it, but we managed not to get lost too often. A "sound sculpture" has recently been added to the maze, as you might have seen featured on the Historic Royal Palaces series on (I think) BBC2.

The sounds actually work quite well as you travel through the maze, some are louder than I was expecting, and some are very quiet and just brush the edges of your hearing. There are short, whispered conversations that hark back to the maze's role as a secret meeting place for lovers while at court, and sounds of children playing, men shouting, ladies giggling and so on. Right at the centre of the maze is another sound sculpture, and it's easy to see how, before its installation, the centre of the maze was a complete anti-climax for people. There's basically nothing there other than a few benches and this sound.

If you've had enough of the maze by the time you reach the centre then you can make use of the quick exit route that's been created. We, fearless explorers that we are, decided to go back the way we came.

In total we spent around an hour in the maze, including time spent taking daft photos of each other looking lost and a 5 minute sit down at the centre.

The maze is off to one side of the palace and its gardens, so it's a bit of a walk to get there from the other main points of interest, but it's worth it. For people who are only visiting the gardens I believe it currently costs £3.50 to enter, but it's free for people with palace tickets or (I think) with garden tickets, which are only 50p more.

Conclusion

Hampton Court Palace is well worth a visit, we had a great time and plan to go back soon. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of signs etc around the place explaining things, and next time might have to resort to the dreaded audio guide. However, there are a number of (free) guided tours also available, which I haven't tried yet, so perhaps they'd make a good half-way house. The gardens are lovely, and it's worth making more time for them than we managed first time around - in fact that's one guided tour I would be interested in.

The palace is a reasonable price, and aspects of it are fun enough that kids would learn a fair amount of history without realising. Highly recommended!

Other Information

Hampton Court is a very old building, and as such there are areas of it that aren't very accessible to anyone with mobility problems or small children in tow. However there has been a real effort to open up lots of rooms and other spaces - for example, there is a lift up to the state apartments on the first floor, although you'd have to ask a warden for help accessing it.

I'd allow a minimum of three hours for a visit to the palace, and more if you want to see the gardens and stop for a cup of tea along the way.

In terms of food and drink, there's a restaurant out in the garden area (near the entrance, and open to garden visitors too) with a picnic area nearby where you can partake of your own food and drink. There's also a tea room in the Queen's Kitchen which we found late in the day, which did lovely (if a bit expensive) cream teas. However they are the only two catering outlets I spotted, and I can imagine that in high season they get rather packed out - they were busy enough when we visited. Admittedly there were icecream kiosks in the garden, but the two I spotted were both closed in early May.

The cost of visiting is fairly reasonable - £12.30 for adults, £8 for children under 16 for the palace, or £4/£2.50 for the gardens only. Again, similar places I've visited have been a fair bit more expensive to get in. As we live so close, and I was already planning a return visit, we opted for a joint season ticket, which for £55 allows us entry to all Palaces controlled by Historic Royal Palaces, for a total of 15 months (a special offer, usually 12 months). The palaces include the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Kew Palace and Kensington Palace, so it's really quite good value for money.

www.hrp.org.uk

And another thing

If you're taken by the idea of living in a palace, parts of Hampton Court are available to rent through the Landmark Trust (www.landmarktrust.org.uk) - I haven't tried it, so can't comment, but if you have, let me know! 

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