Explore Henry VIII's cherished garden retreat, through a collection of 16th-century treasures
This content is hosted on YouTube
This content may be using cookies and other technologies for which we need your consent before loading. To view the content, you need to enable cookies for "Targeting Cookies & Other Technologies".
Manage CookiesTracy Borman introduces the lost Tudor garden buildings of Hampton Court Palace.
It’s spring 1530, and Henry VIII has taken the reins of Hampton Court Palace. Its transformation well underway, he turns his attention to the gardens.
Soon a vast, glittering complex of buildings appear across the palace grounds. Each garden building is like a mini palace in its own right, with galleries and passageways, all interconnected.
Each and every one is some distance away from the prying eyes of the court — the most secluded lie behind locked doors in the garden walls.
You might have heard of Henry’s orchards on the north side of the palace, and his Privy and Mount gardens by the riverside. You might even have heard how Henry’s children continued and sometimes surpassed his opulence here at Hampton Court.
Now, allow us to introduce a new private world of a Tudor monarch here at Hampton Court – the now-lost Tudor garden buildings.
Hampton Court from the south, 1558
Hampton Court Palace had some of the greatest and most bedazzling gardens of the Tudor age. Anthonis van den Wijngaerde's panoramas are the most detailed depiction of their scale in existence.
Dated from 1558 during the reign of Henry's daughter Elizabeth I, this exquisite drawing depicts the south gardens.
Image: View of Hampton Court Palace from the South, with the River in the Foreground by Anthonis van den Wijngaerde, 1558. WA.Suth.L.4.9.2 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Great Round Arbour
The grandest of Henry VIII’s garden banqueting houses, designed to dazzle from afar
The Tudor banqueting house (also known as an ‘arbour’ or ‘herber’), was a sophisticated garden building and a 'house for pleasure'. Such a building was used to host intimate banquets for a select few guests. Only the most sumptuous, rare, and expensive foods and drinks were served.
At Hampton Court, Henry’s vast network of banqueting houses and turreted garden buildings could also accommodate much larger festivities and celebrations, as well as providing lodgings for courtiers and important visitors.
The grandest of these banqueting houses – the Great Round Arbour – was set upon a mound, 40 feet high. It literally raised Henry, his queen and their guests above the masses of the court.
Image: The Great Round Arbour in Wijngaerde's 1588 panorama of Hampton Court Palace. Detail of WA.Suth.L.4.9.2 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
These banqueting houses were intended to delight the senses with their whimsical castle-like appearance, rich colourful interiors, and panoramic views of the pleasure gardens below. But they were also masterpieces of propaganda and a physical expression of the King’s power.
Nothing articulated Tudor magnificence more than a sea of glazed banqueting houses with their turrets, battlements and lead domed roofs, each adorned with gilt vanes. Some were even topped with a painted beast for good measure.
Designed to impress, the Great Round Arbour was one of the locations where Henry and his queen could entertain foreign ambassadors, dignitaries and other high-status guests. An invitation was the ultimate sign of royal favour, offering a fleeting chance for private conversations in one of the most closely controlled locations at the palace.
Inside the Great Round Arbour was a cellar, kitchen and two lavish banqueting chambers. Each were decorated with oak panelling, painted cloth hangings, and paving tiles. The gilt ceiling was decorated with Renaissance-style designs in vermilion from the powdered mineral cinnabar, Spanish white composed of chalk, and verdigris, a greenish blue colour produced from a mixture of copper salts.
Modern location: south-east quarter of the Privy Garden
Explore the Great Round Arbour
It’s the 16th century. Imagine approaching Hampton Court by barge. As you turn a bend in the river, your eyes gaze upon the huge lead dome of the Great Round Arbour glinting at the top of an enormous earthwork known as the Mount. Surrounded by Tudor heraldry, the path to this banqueting house is lined with fragrant rosemary and 16 posts bearing the 'king’s beasts'.
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 1537-8
Discovered: The Hampton Court moat, 1909
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 16th century
Discovered: The Privy Garden, Hampton Court Palace
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 16th century
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Description: Tudor stained-glass panels in the Byward Tower, Tower of London
Date: 16th century
© A. Gregory / Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Near the Tudor Pond Gardens, Hampton Court Palace
© Historic Royal Palaces
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Recreations of the king's beasts, Hampton Court
As you approach the magnificent Great Gatehouse at Hampton Court today, you can see these mid-20th-century recreations of the king’s beasts. They give us a sense of what the path to the Great Round Arbour and the rest of the gardens might have looked like.
The Great Round Arbour was crowned with a lead 'ogee' (or onion) dome on top of which was a lion holding a gilt vane. You can see examples of a gilded lion as part of the king’s beasts recreated in the Chapel Court garden.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
The beasts are based on drawings produced in the early 16th century; their bright livery reflects the traditional Tudor heraldic colour schemes.
Fragment of carved Reigate stone showing arms of Jane Seymour
Date: 1537-8
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: The Hampton Court moat, 1909
This fragment of a Reigate stone heraldic shield would once have been held by the king’s beasts and shows the arms of Jane Seymour. A phoenix – Jane’s emblem – rises up at the top.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
The stone depicts a palace gateway, with a hawthorn tree and crown - a symbol used by Henry VII in remembrance of the end of the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, when Henry became the first Tudor King. According to legend, the crown was found in a hawthorn tree after the death of Henry's rival, Richard III on the battlefield.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Fragment of Venetian lattimo glass
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: The Privy Garden, Hampton Court Palace
This tiny, tantalising fragment of 16th-century Venetian 'Vetro a filigrana' glass was found at Hampton Court, not far from where the Great Round Arbour stood. 'Vetro a filigrana' was a technique of glass-making developed in Venice in 1527.
The fragment is decorated with parallel 'lattimo' (white) bands, known as 'vetro a fili', literally meaning 'glass with lines'. It belongs to the foot of a goblet wine glass, which was likely imported from Venice. Henry VIII’s property inventories of 1542 and 1547 describe such items among his possessions.
Image: An example of a venetian glass, similar to what Henry VIII might have used in the banqueting houses of Hampton Court. CMoG 70.3.3. Image licensed by The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (www.cmog.org), under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This wine glass (pictured above) has a slightly different pattern of twisted interlaced canes, known as 'vetro a retortoli'. It dates from around 1550-1600, and was made in Venice.
Up until the second half of the 16th century, the Venetian market dominated the international trade in glass products, in part because of the Venetian mastery of clear 'cristallo' glass. With the movement of foreign craftspeople came the spread of new techniques to English soil.
Frenchman Jean Carre, who came to England via Antwerp, was permitted to set up glass furnaces in the south of England from 1567. He installed one at Crutched Friars near the Tower of London, which specialised in the production of cristallo glass, made by Italian glassmakers in England.
Glasmakers operating in England included Jacopo Verzilini, who was later granted a patent that enabled him to monopolise the making of venetian-style glass. 'Facon-Venise' (glassware made 'the Venetian way') became virtually impossible to distinguish from the real deal made in Italy.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Elizabethan silver gilt spice dish
Date: 16th century
Collection: V&A
Henry’s privileged guests were invited to intimate banquets as well as more formal celebrations and events. Guests could expect an array of delicate sweetmeats exuding elegance and luxury, prepared by the most talented confectioners.
Vast quantities of spices and sugars imported from the Middle East and North Africa were used to create delicacies such as gingerbreads, subtleties (highly sculptural sugarwork dishes), and marchpanes (large discs of almond paste glazed with icing sugar).
This rare Elizabethan silver gilt spice dish is one of a set of six, engraved with scenes from the stories of Abraham and Isaac, a story about faith, obedience and sacrifice in the biblical Book of Genesis.
In the centre of the dish, Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, is depicted at the well holding up a jug to two travellers. On the well, you can see depictions of mythical sea monsters, with different exotic creatures interspersed between scrollwork on the rim.
A selection of spiced sweetmeats would have been arranged on spice plates like this during sumptuous banquets in the gardens.
Image: 16th-century stained glass panels depicting [left] Prince of Wales feathers and Ich Dien scroll, and [right] Glass panel with crowned chaplet (wreath) and insets made up of fragments of Henry VII glass showing the oak leaf and HR initials, representing Henry Rex or 'King'. Shield shows six lions, leopards and fleur de lys, in a quartered shield. © A. Gregory / Historic Royal Palaces
Tudor stained-glass panels
Date: Around the early 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Feet upon feet of glass was provided for the Great Round Arbour by the esteemed Bruges-born Master Glazier to the King, Galyon Hone, who was kept incredibly busy during the 1530s at Hampton Court. Many panes of glass were decorative, adorned with the arms and badges of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, later replaced with those of Jane Seymour in 1537.
These two stained glass panels from the Tower of London are similar to the ones that would have adorned the banqueting houses at Hampton Court.
The glass panels are part of a large collection, once in the Round Drawing Room at Strawberry Hill, west London. They were bought in an auction in 1842 and installed in the 1920s bay window of the Byward Tower.
See if you can spot them on your next visit to the Tower of London, as you pass into Mint Street.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Fragments of decorated window glass
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Near the Tudor Pond Gardens, Hampton Court Palace
Decorated glass like this adorned all the windows of the garden buildings at Hampton Court.
The decoration on these pieces is hard to see as the glass is both fragmentary and has a blackened manganese surface. Close-up images help us to better define the decoration, forms and colours. Take a look: can you see a type of cross?
The Water Gallery
A royal boathouse and entrance, reserved for the royal family and their most privileged guests
The Water Gallery was a great fortress-like building jutting out onto the river. At over 52 metres long and 18 metres wide, it dominated the eastern end of the riverside gardens.
It was first and foremost the royal boathouse, landing stage and the principal royal river entrance into Hampton Court Palace.
Image: The Water Gallery in Wijngaerde's 1588 panorama of Hampton Court Palace. Detail of WA.Suth.L.4.9.2 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The river was by far the best way for Henry and his queen to travel, particularly as many of the royal palaces were situated along the river.
The south elevation of the Water Gallery projected out into the river, so that the royal barge could enter the Hampton Court gardens directly through a great arched opening. From there, the royal party disembarked via a stairway, which you can just about see in the Wijngaerde drawing.
Modern location: Tijou Screen, Privy Garden
Watch: The Water Gallery at Hampton Court
Your luxurious 16th-century journey up the River Thames culminates in entry to Henry’s gardens via his Water Gallery. Learn more about this magnificent building and why it was so important to Henry VIII from our curators, in the short film below
This content is hosted on YouTube
This content may be using cookies and other technologies for which we need your consent before loading. To view the content, you need to enable cookies for "Targeting Cookies & Other Technologies".
Manage CookiesThe Water Gallery video transcript
Follow along with an interactive transcript of this video on YouTube. A link to open the transcript can be found in the description.
The Long Gallery
Henry VIII's private entrance
The Long Gallery was over 91 metres long and initially set over two storeys. Long Galleries were popular in grand Tudor buildings, used for indoor sports during bad weather, for walking and viewing the gardens, playing musical instruments, or perhaps for long philosophical and political discussions.
Henry VIII spent a great deal of time and money perfecting the Long Gallery at Hampton Court. Eventually, the building became an extension of his private lodgings. The Long Gallery was demolished in 1689 under Mary II and William III.
Image: The Long Gallery in Wijngaerde's 1588 panorama of Hampton Court Palace. Detail of WA.Suth.L.4.9.2 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Built in 1515-25, the original Long Gallery had a cloister on the ground floor and a gallery on the upper level. Much like Henry VII's French-inspired loggia galleries at Richmond Palace, it was built to admire the gardens and courtyards.
In 1534-35, around the same time as he completed the Water Gallery, Henry inserted a Privy Staircase that provided exclusive access from the gallery to his Privy (private) Garden.
A few years later in 1537-38, enamoured with his new gardens and growing increasingly immobile, the King built yet another set of new lodgings for himself beneath the Long Gallery on the ground floor. This gave him direct access to the gardens. One element described as the ‘King’s new lodgings in the Privy Garden’ was an entirely new structure jutting out 40 feet into the Privy Garden.
Modern location: South side of Hampton Court Palace; Fountain Court cloister
Explore the Long Gallery
As Henry’s most favoured guest, your route to the palace from the riverside is through a series of high-security doors, galleries and passages. As the palace emerges into view, you’ll be struck by the vastness and innovation of the Long Gallery. This beautiful space is adorned with exquisite architectural terracotta and Renaissance motifs.
Date: 16th century
Discovered: The Hampton Court moat, near the lost Tudor Queen’s Gallery, 1977
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 1515-1529
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 1537-8
Discovered: Behind the King’s Staircase at Hampton Court Palace, 1955
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: Early 20th century
Reproduced courtesy of Surrey Archaeological Society
Date: 1521
Location: Anne Boleyn Gateway, Great Gatehouse and the Great Watching Chamber
© Historic Royal Palaces
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Fragment of a terracotta Frieze
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: The Hampton Court moat, near the lost Tudor Queen’s Gallery on the east side of the palace, 1977
Enthusiasm for architectural terracotta reached England in the Tudor period with the arrival of migrant Florentine sculptors in 1510. For a short period, it was the height of Renaissance fashion.
Though generally associated with the period between 1515-29, much of the terracotta would have been visible until the Long Gallery was demolished in the 17th century.
This fragment of terracotta frieze decorated with guilloche (intersecting curved lines) and rosettes was found during excavations in 1977 on the east side of the palace. It was probably made in a production site near the Southwark waterfront.
The combination of the natural warm earthy colours of the terracotta and the floral motifs creates a harmonious link between the gardens and the palace buildings.
Tudor terracotta fragment
Date: 1515-1529
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
This is a fragment of Tudor terracotta window transom (or head) with floral decoration. It was among the decorative building material fragments from Cardinal Wolsey's palace. It is most likely associated with the first phase of the Long Gallery (1515-1529).
Fragment of a terracotta window transom
Date: 1515-35
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Behind the King’s Staircase at Hampton Court Palace, 1955
This large fragment of a terracotta window transom was found during routine repair work in 1955.
Workmen found a series of Elizabethan doors that had been blocked in the 1690s using a mixture of brick rubble and broken fragments of architectural terracotta. Wherever possible, Tudor building material was recycled and reused in the new Baroque palace, whether that was as foundations, or for blocking up doors and windows.
Image: Reproduced courtesy of Surrey Archaeological Society
Postcard of Sutton Place showing architectural terracotta
Date: Early 20th century
Collection: Surrey Archaeological
No Tudor architectural terracotta survives on the buildings of Hampton Court today. Luckily, we can imagine what this might have looked like through several other surviving examples of this short-lived Tudor fad.
This postcard from the early 20th century shows one of the entrances into Sutton Place, a Manor House built by courtier Sir Richard Weston in around 1525. Architectural terracotta frames the doorway and can be seen on the window tracery, as well as plaques above the door.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Terracotta roundel labelled 'Tiberius' on the Great Gatehouse, Hampton Court
Date: 1521
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Location: Anne Boleyn Gateway, Great Gate House, Great Watching Chamber
Other forms of Tudor terracotta ornament still survive at Hampton Court today. The palace's celebrated 11 terracotta roundels depicting busts of classical figures can be found on the turrets of Anne Boleyn's Gateway and the Great Gatehouse. One glazed example depicting a laurel-wreathed female, known as the Empress, can be found in the Great Watching Chamber.
In 1521, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey commissioned Giovanni da Maiano, a Florentine sculptor working in England, to cast, paint and gild eight busts for Hampton Court. Not all the busts from Wolsey’s original set of eight survive and some of those at Hampton Court today were made for other palaces. However, these classical busts are among the very earliest examples of Renaissance figural sculpture as architectural ornament in England.
Though the use of architectural terracotta in England died out by 1535 in favour of other means of embellishment, Henry would certainly have embraced the use of such Italianate ornament. Its use at Hampton Court aligned with his desire to present himself as a worldly, erudite and sophisticated European monarch.
On the other side of the Channel, Henry's French cultural rival, Francis I, was busy creating one of the grandest Renaissance buildings. With construction starting in 1528, the now long-lost Chateau de Madrid was located in the present-day Bois de Boulogne near Paris, and was festooned in the most fabulous, glazed terracotta (or faience), made by Girolamo della Robbia.
Henry was hard-pressed to equal this scale of Renaissance magnificence, but still the architectural terracotta at Hampton Court spoke the same language.
Elizabeth I’s Stove House in the Mount Garden
A Queen's sanctuary of peace and privacy?
Elizabeth I loved to be surrounded by sweet, aromatic scents and was keen on the use of herbs and spices for culinary, medicinal and cosmetic uses. Her chambers were strewn with sweet-smelling herbs and leaves, with meadowsweet and lavender particular favourites.
The Queen adored the gardens of Hampton Court, and in 1570-71 she instructed the making of a fashionable new Stove House in the Mount Garden.
Image: The Mount Garden in Wijngaerde's 1588 panorama of Hampton Court Palace. Detail of WA.Suth.L.4.9.2 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Stove House is something of a mystery, but may have been an additional bathing or steam room where Elizabeth could relax and soothe (or perhaps even cure) her ailments. A steamy environment was recommended when bathing, to allow the vapours of herbs and spices to permeate the air.
We know little about the function of the Queen’s Stove House. However, its location in the Mount Garden, away from the buzz of the palace, would certainly have been ideal for a Turkish-style steam bathroom.
Hidden behind a series of lockable doors in the garden walls, it offered a degree of privacy unavailable in the main palace. Perhaps more importantly, the building was situated close to state-of-the-art water cisterns with existing water pipe infrastructure. This existing facility would have made a bathhouse easier to install.
The building was ornately decorated. Building accounts describe gilded casement windows and decorative doorcases with latticework (possibly a lozenge-shaped pattern). These are recorded as painted during maintenance work in 1589 by George Gower, Serjeant Painter to Elizabeth I in 1581-96.
In 1593-94, a tantalising account during the Queen’s later years tells us of deal boards (planks of fir or pinewood) being laid across the gardens between the Stove and the Privy Stairs. This effectively connected the Stove House with Elizabeth's private lodgings.
Elizabeth I’s Stove House was short-lived, which is one reason we know so little about it. It seems to have been dismantled between 1598 and 1599, when labourers ripped up the joists and boards. For the moment, we don’t know why.
Tap to zoom
Hover to zoom
A tantalising glimpse into Elizabeth’s bathroom?
Description: Lead glazed earthenware stove tile
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Excavations of Whitehall Palace in 1939, in the vicinity of Henry VIII’s bathroom
Ceramic wood-burning stoves were used by the wealthy as a means of heating buildings from at least the 13th century. They were introduced to England by German potters working in the Surrey-Hampshire borders in the 16th century. This tile fragment from Henry VIII’s Stove House at Whitehall was made in this region of England.
The fragments are pilasters, designed for the corners of the stove. The tablet at the base bears the ‘HR’ cypher for Henry VIII.
Examples of similar stove tiles have been found with the cypher and arms of Elizabeth I in her other palaces.
Such objects offer a glimpse into the technological advances in heating and bathroom arrangements in the 16th century, and highlight the influence of continental fashion on the English court.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
The Little New Gardens and Still House
A hub of activity, where the Queen's staff distilled herbal waters, oils and cordials
The Little Gardens were set aside to grow herbs, fruits and other medicinal plants, including lavender, sage, hyssop, thyme, marshmallow, violets and gillyflowers.
These fragrant gardens were tended by the Keeper of the Little Gardens, who met Elizabeth's demands for herbs, balms, oils and distilled waters. The Keeper lived in the Still House, to the east of the Water Gallery, where a team of distillers prepared medicinal and aromatic concoctions for the Queen and her ladies.
Image: The Still House [left] and the West Herber [right] in Wijngaerde's 1588 panorama of Hampton Court Palace. Detail of WA.Suth.L.4.9.2 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The first known Keeper of the Little Gardens was George Aylsbury in 1541, followed by Myllysaynte Aylsbury in 1546, then William Huggins in 1560.
Tasked with distilling ‘all manner of suche herbes, waters and other necessaries, as shall be made and stilled yearly', the Keeper would have worked closely with the Queen’s physician and the palace’s apothecary.
Vast quantities of distilled waters were made for Elizabeth throughout her reign. These included:
- Borage 'to exhilarate and make the mind glad';
- Marigold to 'ceaseth the inflammation and take away the pain';
- Strawberry, which was thought good 'against the passion of the heart and making the heart merry' when drunk with white wine!
Keeping it in the family
As Keepers of the Little Gardens, the Huggins family lived in the gardens of Hampton Court for over 150 years.
The Two Little Gardens were located on the riverside between the Old Mill House and the Mount Garden, with an orchard to the east of the Water Gallery.
The location of these herb or still gardens was especially convenient for the Great Round Arbour. Many flavoured waters and botanicals would have also been made for use by the cooks making elaborate dishes for royal banquets.
By the end of the 16th century, the Thameside bowling alley, Old Mill House and the Herber in the south-west corner of the Mount Garden had been subsumed into Hampton Court’s distilling operations. The 'West Herber' adjacent to the bowling alley also became part of this facility and may be the building later referred to as the Hot House, possibly where distilled oils and waters were made.
Explore the Still House
The Still House and Stills were on the east side of the Mount, sitting within an orchard. Like the West Herber, the ground floor may also have been used in the preparation of distilled waters, aromatic herbs, and sweet-smelling plants for various remedies. Fragrant rosemary, thyme, rose and lavender would have permeated the air around the Still Gardens.
Date: 16th century
Discovered: Whitehall Palace in 1950
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: Mid-17th century
© Historic Royal Palaces
© Historic Royal Palaces
© Historic Royal Palaces
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Earthenware distillation vessels
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Whitehall Palace in 1950
These earthenware vessels are akin to the type of distillation equipment that might have been used in the Still House at Hampton Court. Such equipment could be glass, metal or ceramic and was used for extracting oils and essences such as rose water, and distilling alcohol.
Distillation equipment came in two parts, together known as a ‘still’. In the lower vessel (called a cucurbit) a substance was heated to give off vapour.
The second part (the alembic) then slotted over the cucurbit and captured the vapour, cooling it back to a liquid. This liquid filtered through the spout and dripped into a receiver.
This collection includes large fragments of alembic vessels.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
17th-century drawing of the Still House
Date: Mid-17th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
The Still House was built in the south-east corner of the Mount Garden and was connected to the Water Gallery by an east west range.
It was occupied by the Huggins or Hogan family from 1560 until it was demolished in the 1690s.
The building was substantial in size and had a quatrefoil form, with a series of projecting round bay windows. Internally, the building had a fretwork ceiling, carved by carver Edmund More of nearby Kingston. Its beauty and grandeur tell us something of the level of esteem in which the Keeper of the Little Gardens was held.
So grand was the building that it continued to be used as a space for banquets throughout its life and was also used as high-status accommodation for officials. Visitors included the Spanish Ambassador, and Prince Rupert (Duke of Cumberland and first cousin to Charles II) later in the 17th century. During these periods, the Huggins family had to move out.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
The Little Banqueting House, site of the Old Mill House
The Old Mill House was an early 16th-century small square castellated building on the riverside to the south of the Pond Gardens.
The building seems to have initially served as a well house supplying water to the Pond Gardens. By the middle of the 16th century, the building seemingly became part of the complex of buildings and gardens dedicated to the art and science of distilling.
The building was demolished in 1699-1700 to create the present Little Banqueting House for William III, an early 18th-century version of Henry VIII's banqueting houses.
The building you can see today still has one or two Tudor secrets waiting to be found...
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
A Tudor doorway in the basement of the Little Banqueting House
Not all archaeological remains are buried beneath our feet. A lot of the archaeology cared for by Historic Royal Palaces can be found hidden within the standing buildings or even in plain sight, if you know where to look.
During demolition works in 1700, part of the Old Mill House was incorporated into the construction of the Little Banqueting House.
This Tudor doorway of Reigate stone once belonged to the Old Mill House. It is now hidden in one of the cubicles of the ladies’ toilets in the semi-basement floor of the Little Banqueting House!
The Tiltyard Towers
Five fanciful towers – a force of dynastic strength
The Tiltyard Towers were constructed between 1534 and 1536 – soon joined by a tiltyard in 1538. They were designed to look like mini fortresses with their battlements and turrets, perpetuating Henry’s message of power and might.
Image: The Tiltyard Towers in Wijngaerde's 1588-61 panorama of Hampton Court Palace, from the north. Detail of WA.Suth.L.4.9.1 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
What is a tiltyard?
A tiltyard was a dedicated place for jousts. During jousting tournaments, heavily-armoured knights on horseback hurtled towards each other and tried to knock down their opponent.
The later construction of the tiltyard at Hampton Court coincided with Jane Seymour's pregnancy. Henry was confident his long-awaited heir was on the way and planned to hold a great celebration.
Henry's tiltyard, along with the bowling alleys and tennis courts, was part of a significant sporting complex suited for the life of the future Tudor king.
Did you know?
Henry VIII would not live to enjoy a jousting tournament in his tiltyard at Hampton Court. The first known joust held here was hosted by his daughter, Mary I and her husband in December 1557.
The Middle Tower
This was the largest and most spectacular of the Tiltyard Towers. It was three stories high with a chamber on each floor. It was emblazoned with a staggering 1,004 feet of glass, made by Master Glazier, Galyon Hone, one of many northern European craftsman and artists busy embellishing Henry VIII’s palaces in the 16th century.
The building was also adorned with several ornate chimneys and topped with gilt weathervanes.
The upper storey of the Middle Tower was probably the main banqueting chamber, with glorious panoramic views. Other rooms were used as lodgings.
No remains of the spectacular Middle Tower have ever been found. However, comparisons with other similar Tudor banqueting houses help us to imagine what this and some of the tiltyard towers might have looked like. The remains of one such tower can be seen in the gardens at Ashby-de-la-Zouche.
The South East Tower
The South East Tower is the only Tiltyard Tower that survives today. It is set within the eastern boundary wall of the tiltyard, overlooking the Old Orchard.
It has undergone significant changes during its 500-year history, but substantial sections of Tudor brickwork can still be seen today. Its general plan remains largely unchanged.
The building originally had a stair turret on the west side with a small doorway facing north and arrow loops at high level. Its height suggests it was possible to get up to the roof, with a tiny window visible in the turret above the first-floor level.
North West Tower
The North West Tower was roughly square in plan. It had two semi-circular bay windows, a stair turret on the east side and two decorative chimney shafts. The latter were built by Christopher Dickenson and Robert Burdges, and recorded as being painted in July 1536.
The windows were adorned with 363 feet of window glass, some pieces decorated with the arms and badges of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Just over six months later, these were changed to Jane Seymour’s arms and badges.
Remains of this tower have been found during archaeological excavations.
North East Tower
The North East Tower was located partially on the site of the present-day Wilderness Cottage.
A turret structure on the north side of the building had narrow high-level transomed windows at ground and first-floor levels, which are described in the building accounts as clerestory windows.
The windows were furnished with 202 feet of glass. Inside, the chambers were decorated with fretwork painted cobalt blue, vermilion, and white. Grocer John Lyonelle provided all the painters’ equipment.
Remains of this tower have been found during archaeological excavations.
Kitchen and Lodging Over
This tower is referred to as the 'lodging over the kitchen in the great Orchard'. The lack of turrets or much decoration suggests a more practical function than the other towers.
The building had a large chimney stack with three plain circular chimney shafts against the west elevation, where the kitchen was probably located. An additional two chimney stacks can be seen on the east side, connected to the lodging on the first floor.
Modern location: Tiltyard and Wilderness Cottage
Explore the Tiltyard Towers
Rather than formal viewing platforms, the Tiltyard Towers were part of the scenic backdrop to tournaments and other entertainments. They contained lodgings and lavish chambers in which Henry could impress his important guests, treating them to intimate banquets and glorious views of the gardens.
The interiors were spectacularly decorated with bright, luxurious colours and sculptural details, everything highlighted with gold. Best appreciated at night, they would have shimmered and glistened by candlelight.
Date: 16th century
Discovered: Wolsey Suite at Hampton Court Palace, 1963
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 16th century
Discovered: Site of the North West Tower at Hampton Court Palace, 2015
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 16th century
Discovered: Wolsey Suite at Hampton Court Palace, 1963
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 16th century
Discovered: Whitehall Palace, 1964
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 16th century
Discovered: Hampton Court Palace, 2015
© Historic Royal Palaces
Date: 1536-40
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Wolsey Closet ceiling, Hampton Court
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Henry VIII's ceilings were covered in fretwork, a popular form of 16th-century decoration.
Timber ribs or battens, often enriched with inset moulded work, decorated with Renaissance-style 'Antique' trails, were arranged to create geometrical patterns. These were then painted in bright colours and gilded.
Pendants or bosses were placed at the intersection of the ribs, usually set with gilt lead leaves. Within the panels formed by the ribs or battens, you might find Renaissance-style motifs or armorial roundels.
Examples of this decoration can still be seen within the palace, in the Wolsey Rooms, the Wolsey Closet, and the Great Watching Chamber. Alongside evidence in the building accounts, exciting archaeological discoveries confirm this continued in the Tiltyard Towers.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Lead leaf
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Site of the North West Tiltyard Tower, 2015
These lead leaves were among the 16 found at Hampton Court. They were once part of the ceiling decoration inside the North West Tiltyard Tower.
The leaves have cut edges and central veins on the upper surface. They may represent vine or oak leaves.
The central strip on this leaf is curved, which indicates where the leaves were fitted around decorative ceiling ribs.
Image: An archaeologist holding up a gilded lead leaf, during the excavation of the Tiltyard Tower. © Historic Royal Palaces
Archival records confirm that the inside of this tower was decorated with timber fretwork painted cobalt blue and red ochre colours. Painters Richard Welche, Wylliam Russell, John Wyllyngow and John Good were tasked with this work, with James Grene grinding up the pigments.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Tudor ceiling ribs (battens)
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Wolsey Suite at Hampton Court Palace, 1963
The ceilings of the Tiltyard Towers were covered in elaborate timber battens like this one. Gilding was complemented by this stunning cobalt blue.
A total of 320 yards of timber battens with grotesque moulded work, 447 gilded ceiling bosses and 36 three-dimensional pendants or bosses of varying sizes were supplied for one floor of the Middle Tower alone.
All the ceiling decoration was prepared by distinguished Northern European painter-stainers Henry Blankston and John Hethe.
These gilded oak ribs have paste-work inserts (moulded decorative elements made from sawdust, brick/chalk dust and animal glue), decorated with gilt on blue/green paint depicting typical Renaissance trails. This example was removed in sections from the ceiling of Thomas Wolsey's old lodgings at Hampton Court during restoration works in the 1960s.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Tin-glazed earthenware floor tile
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Whitehall Palace, 1964
All three floors of the Middle Tower were decorated with the highest quality materials.
This beautiful elongated hexagonal-shaped maiolica tile was found on the site of Whitehall Palace. It is strikingly similar to tile fragments found during excavations in the Tiltyard at Hampton Court Palace in 2013.
This type of Italian/Flemish tin-glazed tile was expensive to import, but was still extremely sought after by those wealthy enough.
Flemish tiles of this type have been found at the Tower of London and Whitehall, as well as Hampton Court. An entire pavement of these tiles also exists at The Vyne in Hampshire.
The overall arrangement of the floor using these tiles would have been formed of repeated patterns of four hexagonal tiles with a central square tile depicting an animal, mythical creature or a figure, with small triangular tiles used at the edges.
Image: 16th-century Flemish-type ceramic floor tiles with traces of green and orange glazes, excavated in 2015 by HRP archaeologists. © Historic Royal Palaces
Flemish-type ceramic floor tiles
Date: 16th century
Collection: Historic Royal Palaces
Discovered: Hampton Court Palace, 2015
During archaeological excavations in 2015, a slither of a 16th-century tiled surface was uncovered at the north end of the Tiltyard. Its location matched the footprint of the North West Tiltyard Tower.
The tiles were Flemish-type tiles with traces of green and yellow glazes.
The supplier, Thomas Nortedge of Chertsey provided and delivered these very tiles to Hampton Court in autumn 1536.
Image: 16th-century Flemish-type ceramic floor tiles with traces of green and orange glazes, excavated in 2015 by HRP archaeologists. © Historic Royal Palaces
Image: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Stained glass panel with Jane Seymour’s arms
Date: 1536-40
Collection: V&A
This stained glass panel showing Jane Seymour’s arms is similar to the type of panel that Master Glazier Galyon Hone would have produced for the Tiltyard Towers. Glass panels of this kind could be seen in every corner of Hampton Court Palace. This one possibly originated from Nonsuch Palace – the most spectacular of Henry’s vast homes.
The panel depicts on the left the royal arms of England and on the right Jane Seymour’s arms. Her arms are divided into six sections, showing her descent from five families. The top left section of her arms depicts the coat of arms granted to her by Henry VIII.
Galyon Hone was one of many northern European craftsmen and artists busy embellishing Henry VIII’s palaces in the 16th century. At Hampton Court he worked alongside painters Henry Blankston, Johannes (John) Hethe, moulder and artist Robert Schynck, and smith John van Guylders, among others.
Many of these Tudor craftspeople lived in a close-knit community of immigrant artists in Southwark and Westminster. In fact, Henry Blankston’s daughter married Galyon Hone’s son, to whom he later bequeathed all his painter’s equipment after his death.
Despite measures trying to curb the number of foreign craftspeople working in England in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the skill of foreign artisans was often admired above that of the English. This is evident at Hampton Court, where much of the architectural embellishment is the work of European hands.
The Bowling Alley
A nobleman's game
Henry was a keen sportsman. In his younger years he enjoyed more athletic pursuits such as hunting, tennis and jousting, but as he grew older and increasingly unhealthy, he turned to gentler games such as bowling.
There were several bowling alleys at Hampton Court throughout the Tudor period, but probably only two at any one time.
Image: The bowling alley in Wijngaerde's 1588 panorama of Hampton Court Palace. Detail of WA.Suth.L.4.9.2 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The first known bowling alleys at Hampton Court were built in the early 1530s and seemed to be temporary structures.
These temporary bowling alleys were replaced by substantial brick buildings in 1537-38:
- The Thameside Close Bowling Alley between the Old Mill House and the West Herber.
- The Close Bowling Alley on the north side of the palace, against the newly built ‘Prince’s Lodgings’ (near Henry VIII’s Kitchens).
Bowling was hugely popular, but Henry VIII was keen to keep it exclusive. 'Commoners' were banned, while the wealthy could play on their secluded estates and orchards.
The Thameside bowling alley was the second or possibly third bowling alley on this riverside site. It measured around 64 metres in length and had a crenellated parapet and a lead roof. The south elevation was pierced with 16 square cross windows in pairs.
By the end of the 16th century, the Thameside Bowling Alley was subsumed into the growing distilling operations at the palace and used as a store by William Huggins, Keeper of the Stills and Little New Gardens. Later in the 17th century, it became the lodging of gardener Mr Yates. Its final use was as a buttery (for storing barrels of ale or beer), before being demolished in the 1690s.
Modern locations: Little Banqueting House Terrace, near the Pond Gardens and between the Real Tennis Court and the Nursery Garden (not on the visitor route)
Explore the bowling alleys
Date: 16th century
© MOLA
© Historic Royal Palaces
Image: © MOLA
Tudor bowling ball
Date: 16th century
Collection: MOLA
Near the Close Bowling Alley there was an outbuilding where the King's bowls were crafted (or turned). Indoor bowling balls were not the perfect spherical shape you might imagine, but were much flatter.
This Tudor bowling ball was unearthed during the Crossrail project, at the site of King's Court Manor House in Stepney Green, east London.
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Image: © Historic Royal Palaces
Wall remains, Little Banqueting House
If you take a walk in the Pond Gardens and wander past the Little Banqueting House, you will see the remains of the north wall of the old Thameside Bowling Alley. Here, Henry VIII's Great Wall bounded the gardens to the south.
If you look closely, you might spot the scars of the old Tudor windows close to the later 18th-century window openings. These long-since blocked-up windows would have once provided light inside the Thameside Bowling Alley.
Thank you for your support
Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity and your support through membership makes a real difference.
We’re passionate about the palaces and their past and have a charitable duty, written into our founding charter, to help everyone learn about the sites in our care.
Thanks to your support, we’ve been able to research more stories and share them with more people than ever before, including this one.
Image: A Historic Royal Palaces curator holds up a gilded lead leaf, part of the interior decoration of an excavated Tiltyard Tower at the site of the new Magic Garden. © Historic Royal Palaces
About the author
Alexandra Stevenson is an archaeologist and historian working across Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, and Kensington Palace. She is the lead curator responsible for Historic Royal Palaces's extensive archaeological collections.
Header image: © Historic Royal Palaces. Photo: Peter Dazeley
Browse more history and stories
Henry VIII, Terrible Tudor?
Who was the real Henry VIII?
Anne Boleyn
How did Anne Boleyn become queen and why did Henry VIII execute her?
Jane Seymour
Henry VIII's favourite Queen?
Explore what's on
- Things to see
Privy Garden
Explore the Privy Garden, now restored to its former glory and complete with its intricate Tijou Screen.
-
Open (Closes at 16:30 on 12 July and 30 August)
- In line with palace opening hours
- Hampton Court Palace
- Included in palace admission (Members go free)
- Things to see
Great Hall
Experience the splendour of the Tudor court in Henry VIII's Great Hall, complete with his magnificent tapestries.
- Open
- In line with palace opening hours
- Hampton Court Palace
- Included in palace admission (Members go free)
- Things to see
Great Watching Chamber
Discover Henry VIII’s State Apartments and the battle for power at the Tudor court in the Great Watching Chamber.
- Open
- In line with palace opening hours
- Hampton Court Palace
- Included in palace admission (Members go free)
Shop online
Shop Tudors
Find the perfect gift for collectors and history enthusiasts in our treasure trove of souvenirs inspired by this ever-fascinating dynasty.
From £3.00
Shop Goblets & Tankards
Discover our decadent range of goblets and tankards inspired by the palaces in our care, the perfect gift for any history fan.
From £10.00
Henry VIII Gauntlet Armour Oven Glove
This fun oven glove is inspired by a suit of armour made for Henry VIII in 1540, currently on display at the Tower of London.
£18.00