Hampton Court’s Great Hall
Henry VIII’s hammerbeam ceiling at Hampton Court Palace was a piece of engineering genius.
Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thame.
The Great Hall, built from 1532, sits at the very heart of the Tudor palace at Hampton Court, towering over the surrounding buildings.
It was designed to impress and to proclaim Henry VIII’s power and magnificence.
Even today the size and grandeur of the Great Hall will take your breath away.
By the time that Henry VIII's carpenters began working on the huge timber roof of the Great Hall in 1533, the King had divorced his first wife Katherine of Aragon and was married to his second, Anne Boleyn.
To celebrate Henry and Anne's marriage, the carpenters added Anne's coat-of-arms to the roof and carved the entwined letters H and A on the wooden screen at the end of the Great Hall.
These poignant reminders of Anne's time as Queen can still be seen today.
Also featured in the roof is Anne's falcon badge, and the initials AR for Anna Regina — see if you can spot them from the ground floor.
As you look up at the roof consider the great skill of the craftsmen who made it.
Henry VIII chose the nostalgic hammerbeam style to evoke the great halls of his medieval predecessors.
Henry was attracted by tales of their chivalric deeds and modelled himself and his palace on them.
On special occasions, the Great Hall was used for plays, dances, and masques.
James I’s court spent Christmas and New Year 1603-4 at Hampton Court to escape an outbreak of plague in London.
During the festive celebrations William Shakespeare and his company of players performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Great Hall.
By the early 1700s the Great Hall had stopped being used for dining and instead a permanent theatre was built into the space.
It included a stage with a proscenium arch, and tiers of raked seating for the audience.
Look out for the 'Eavesdroppers' – the carved and painted heads that decorate the roof of the Great Hall.
On the walls of the Great Hall hang a series of tapestries showing scenes from the life of the patriarch Abraham from the Book of Genesis.
These tapestries were probably commissioned by Henry VIII and were certainly first hung in the Great Hall in 1546. They were woven in Brussels from wool, silk, and gold and silver thread.
When the Royal Collection was valued after the execution of Charles I in 1649 the Abraham tapestries were priced at £8,260.
This was a phenomenal amount of money and made them the most valuable items in the collection.
As magnificent as the palace interiors undoubtedly are, the gardens draw just as many visitors, partly for their beauty but also because of their historical significance.
Immediately behind the King's Apartments is the Great Fountain Garden, designed in 1689 by Daniel Marot out of Henry VIII's hunting park.
This garden is laid out with broad, gravelled walks and 13 fountains to add interest to wide canals, including Long Water, bordered by avenues of lime trees.
On the south side of the palace is the Privy Garden, designed as a formal, private area for the monarch.
The garden as we see it today is a recreation of William III's 1702 Privy Garden.
Most visitors - especially if they have children in tow - will head straight to The Maze, the oldest known hedge maze in the world.
The Maze was planted around the year 1700 as a place for courtiers to find peaceful refuge from the hustle and bustle of court life.
Trapezoidal in layout, the Maze was originally planted with hornbeam from the Netherlands, but this was later replaced by yew.
The attraction has an incredible 5 star rating on TripAdvisor, with more than 7,000 raving reviews.
One recent customer said: “It was exceptionally interesting and all the rooms and exhibits were explained perfectly on the audio tour guide.
”The staff was also very helpful and I didn’t feel like I was in a museum where I couldn’t touch anything or sit down.”
Another person added: “Very well presented, so much history incorporated in one place. The staff were helpful. Allow plenty of time, as there is a lot to see. Highlights for me were the Great Hall and Chapel.”
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