Hampton Court Palace is a major tourist attraction with over half a million visitors a year. This magnificent royal palace was originally built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, in 1514 on the site of an older manor house owned by the Order of the Knights Templars.

The palace was created at a vast expense of 200,000 gold crowns, an enormous sum in the 16th century. Although expanded and enhance by King Henry VIII, the original building by Wolsey still forms the nucleus of the Palace of Hampton Court, although much changed.

Hampton Court Palace is situated 12 miles from central London on the River Thames, in the London Borough of Richmond. In 1529 Cardinal Wolsey gave the Palace to King Henry VIII in an attempt to win back the King’s favour. Henry VIII then enlarged the palace considerably. In 1689, King William III started a program of building that reshaped the palace and destroyed half of the Tudor buildings but this work ceased in 1694 and was never completed.

Fortunately the different styles of architecture have created a building of great charm and interest. The grounds of the palace, known as Home Park, are the venue for some major social events, including The Hampton Court Festival and the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, which is the second largest horticultural event after the Chelsea Flower Show. The Palace is cared for and managed by the Historic Royal Palaces, a charity which receives no funding from the Crown or the Government.

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