A Brief Architectural History of Hampton Court Palace

The story of the buildings at Hampton Court begins before Henry VIII’s Palace and even before Cardinal Wolsey’s country house. Around 1494, a courtier named Giles Daubeney leased the land at Hampton Court from a group of monks known as the Knights Hospitallers.

An outline of Daubeney’s manor is laid out in red bricks in Clock Court to mark where it once stood. There was a moat and a medieval manor house which he improved upon by creating a range of new buildings, fit for entertaining King Henry VII and his Queen, Elizabeth of York.

Part of these early works included building a new kitchen, which still survives and can be seen today. The kitchen was widely expanded in 1529-30 for Henry VIII to increase meal production for the vast number of people who would stay at the Palace when the king was in residence.

In 1514, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey became the next occupant of Hampton Court with big ideas of building an impressive home fit for a Cardinal.

Base Court was his first addition, designed to provide plenty of rooms for the visitors who would come see him from all over Britain and Europe.

He added distinctly Italian decorative touches that were new to England – you can still see the terracotta roundels of ancient Roman emperors on either side of the Anne Boleyn’s Gateway.

Another Wolsey innovation: he designed the rooms around Base Court to contain the chimneys and garderobes set within the walls, instead of in protruding towers, giving Hampton Court a novel exterior appearance. 

Clock Court is the very best place to see the work of Hampton Court’s key builders. To the west is the range designed by Wolsey with the Clock Tower, and to the north, Henry VIII’s Great Hall. 

The Great Hall at Hampton Court was largely rebuilt by Henry VIII in 1532 to designs by Christopher Dickenson and James Nedeham. The most stunning feature is its hammerbeam roof, decorated with carved heads, royal badges, and Tudor pendants that drop down at graduated intervals.

It provides a dramatic backdrop and sense of grandeur to those who progress below. 

Another early Tudor addition to Hampton Court was the Chapel. It was greatly remodelled for Henry VIII from 1529 to create a place of worship fit for a king. 

Back outside on the south side of Clock Court, we leave the older Tudor palace behind. This elegant colonnade leads us to the heart of the Baroque extension of the Palace, which Sir Christopher Wren designed for William and Mary at the end of the 17th century. 

One would think it was an entirely different place, as it appears so unlike the Tudor palace built by Wolsey and Henry VIII.

However, it is indeed still Hampton Court and it illustrates how English architecture in the 17th century was shifting away from the Gothic style of building to embrace the Classical style coming from Europe.

Wren designed the King's State Apartments so that William III could have direct access to the Privy Garden from his private rooms on the ground floor. 

Back in Clock Court we see the final phase of Royal construction and renovation at Hampton Court: The east wing, which once held the private apartments of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon and their child, Princess Mary.

The apartments  were re-designed in 1732 by architect William Kent into a new suite of rooms for George II's son, William, Duke of Cumberland. Kent chose to adopt a fanciful Gothic style to match the early Tudor palace. 

It is 105 feet wide and 3,800 feet long. It’s fed by the Longford River. A total of 758 Dutch lime trees were planted along either side to create a lovely view from the Palace.