The last royal hall

Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, part I In the care of Historic Royal Palaces In the first of two articles illustrated with specially commissioned photographs of the interior taken at the end of lockdown, John Goodall looks at the remarkable history of Henry VIII’s celebrated great hall at Hampton Court

- John Goodall

FOR all the changes it has undergone, Hampton Court arguably brings the modern visitor closer to the world of Henry VIII than any other building in Britain. Its link to the founding king of Protestant England has always been important, not only to the popular perception of the palace, but also to the monarchs who occupied and developed it into the 18th century. Towards the end of its period of royal occupation, indeed, there were several proposals to rebuild the court.

All these grandiose schemes, however, aimed to preserve at least one inherited structure: Henry VIII’s great hall. The choice was not fortuitous. Not only was the hall exceptionally large and splendid, but it wasthe public centrepiece of the Tudor palace and, by extension therefore, its chief and most imposing architectural antiquity.

The modern visitor who climbs the stair from the middle gatehouse (Fig 2) and walks into the great hall might be forgiven for thinking that they had stepped back in time. The Tudor interior with its spectacular roof seems perfectly preserved and the walls are hung with 16th-century tapestries depicting the story of Abraham (Fig 5). For many centuries, tapestry remained the most expensive and luxurious wall covering in English domestic interiors and this particular set—heavy with gold thread—was commissioned by Henry VIII in 1537 from the Brussels workshop of Willem de Kempeneer.