Name: Henry VIII's Kitchens
Start: 2023-07-11T12:00
End: 2033-07-11T12:00
Location: Hampton Court Palace

Transport yourself back to the heydey of Tudor cooking and entertainment

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When

Open

In line with palace opening hours

Ticketing information

Included in palace admission (Members go free)

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Things to see

Step into the largest and busiest kitchens in Tudor England. Henry VIII's Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace were home to 200 cooks, sergeants, grooms and pages, who produced over 800 meals a day for the King’s hungry household.

Food and eating at the Tudor court was a complex business all done without modern conveniences as 1.3 million logs burned in the hellish fires every year. From boiling cauldrons to roasting spits, join the day-to-day grind of Henry’s cooks as you pass through this labyrinth of kitchen spaces.

The Tudor kitchens continued to feed the royal court long after Henry’s death, including during the reign of Queen Anne, whose court was said to provide some of the best hospitality in England. The kitchens have also been used as a filming location, as seen in the 2018 film The Favourite, which is set during Queen Anne’s reign.

Visitors explore Henry VIII's Kitchens after re-interpretation in 2018.

Feeding a Hungry Tudor court

The kitchens were originally constructed by Cardinal Wolsey, who built Hampton Court. Between their expansion under Henry VIII in around 1529 and George II’s last stay at Hampton Court Palace in 1737, the kitchens were a central part of palace life.

The Tudor kitchens were divided into a number of departments, each controlled by a Sergeant and a team of yeoman and grooms.

The kitchen department where meat was roasted was under the control of three Master Cooks, one for the King, the Queen and the rest of the Court. These staff toiled under a complex set of rules determining which of the 1,200-odd members of Henry’s court qualified for meals as part of their pay.

The kitchen complex

As you enter the kitchen courtyards (Lord Chamberlain’s Court and Master Carpenter’s Court), you're at the starting point of a surprisingly intricate system of walkways leading to the Great Kitchens.

Here, clerks inspected goods before sending them to different parts of the kitchens. The process started in the Boiling House, where stews and pie fillings were prepared and joints of beef and mutton were boiled. These joints were then roasted in six large fireplaces in the Great Kitchens.

Between the Boiling House and Great Kitchens is Fish Court. This long passage is one of the coldest parts of the palace, with storerooms and smaller kitchens - ideal for refrigeration and preparing complex dishes.

Once cooked, food was transferred to the Serving Place for final presentation, while nearby the Wine Cellar stored fine European wines for the court. Servants and courtiers would then carry the food and drink through the surrounding cloisters to serve in the Great Hall or Great Watching Chamber..

Learn more about Tudor food and eating

Veritable hells, such is the stir and bustle in them... there is plenty of beer here, and they drink more than would fill the Valladolid river.

A Spanish visitor to the Tudor court in 1554 describing the kitchens

What was it like to work in the kitchens?

Working in the kitchens could be a sweaty and dirty job. Henry VIII had to order the scullions to stop going about ‘naked, or in garments of such vileness as they do now, nor lie in the nights and days in the kitchen or ground by the fireside’.

Henry VIII’s kitchens continued to be used for a further two hundred years, feeding the tables of the Tudor, Stuart and Georgian households. Evidence of this can still be seen today, including a 17th century bread oven and a Victorian iron range.

Today, the Kitchens offer a rare glimpse into their Tudor origins as a bustling and vibrant complex at the heart of the Tudor court.

Access information

Henry VIII's Kitchens are a step-free route, however flooring is uneven in places. Some areas contain low light levels and can become crowded during peak times. Sound effects are used throughout the kitchens.

A white room large windows and two wooden work tables displaying with historic kitchen utensils and crockery.

Watch Henry VIII's Kitchens at Hampton Court

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