Hampton Court

So I finally made it out to Hampton Court (a while ago...) which was lovely, as it had been on my list for some time! It was a little grey and a bit drizzly...

But that didn't keep it from being as lovely and impressive as ever!

After stepping through those massive gates there is a huge courtyard inside.

(That's the backside of the front gates.)

And look at those chimneys! They all seemed to have different, fancy brickwork. But more importantly, they signified a rich and fancy house, because each chimney indicates a room with its own fireplace in the palace below.

One of the best parts of Hampton Court is the tour, which is acted out as a play of the events that took place leading up to the death of Queen Anne.

The actors and actresses are all splendid, and their costumes were lovely.

The audience even gets to play the part of the sentencing bodies.

After that I had a look around outside. Even with the drizzle it was quite nice.

I can only imagine how much lovelier it will be as spring comes and more flowers bloom.

Tea and a pastry was a must!

Flowers!

The other big highlight was the hedge maze, which was a proper lovely maze.

Doorways and all!

In the middle there's this lovely frame you can take a picture of yourself in, to prove you made it to the center.

The grounds outside are quite extensive.

I bet this is an amaaazing tunnel in the summer.

Trees!

They were quite effective umbrellas to stroll under.

Then there were the more manicured and specially designed gardens.

The lovely windy wine crawling up the wall is massive and impressive, but there's an even better one tucked away through the little door on the left.

Ta-da! So... it's kind of hard to get a good picture of it, but this is the Great Vine. It was planted in 1768 so that the royal family could have grapes year round. Even now it's still going strong, in its own greenhouse and with a large patch of bare earth outside above its roots so that no other plants will compete with it.

The smaller vines are pretty cool, too, though!

Even the corridors are prettily decorated.

This is the beginnings of the kitchens, where the wagons of food would have been brought in and unloaded, and where the butcher worked.

This narrow lane was built to let in little sunlight so that the rooms to either side would stay cool and could be used for storing things like fish and other perishables.

This, now divided by a wall, used to be one massive kitchen.

Equipped with a bread oven, multiple 'stove' tops for individual cauldrons...

And of course a huuuge fireplace.

These were neat little stoves, where you could put wood in one side and scrape the ashes out the other, allowing for pretty good temperature control.

The oven for the bread seems somewhat small compared to the rest, but apparently it worked just fine!

Examples of some of the pottery and herbs that would have been used in the kitchen.

A second huge fireplace, this one with a nice toasty fire going in it!

This is the far side of the kitchen, leading out into the corridors that servants used to carry food up to the great hall.

There was also a large wine cellar, in a room off those same halls for equal ease of access.

Such a petty ceiling design! Now we're off to see King Henry VIII's Apartments.

The Great Hall. With a lovely ceiling, beautiful stained glass...

And plenty of room for feasting.

The king's table.

The next room was the watching chamber, with an equally interesting ceiling.

And some lovely stained glass of its own.

This would have been a room for the servants to dine in.

This is the room in which Henry and Anne would have been wed.

There are also a later set of rooms, the Georgian rooms.

These were really neat little manikins. They represent different people, as is written on the center, and the clothing was all fashioned out of paper.

This was the private dining room where people would come to watch the king eat. I'm not sure why it was a thing... but it was.

Paper people everywhere!

Super fancy bed. Apparently people came to watch you go to bed, too, when you were king.

This big fancy staircase leads up into the rooms that belonged to William III.

Who apparently liked weapons. All four upper portions of this room were decorated in these intricate designs made out of various sorts of weapons mounted on the wall.

He also had a series of increasingly fancy throne rooms.

And an equally fancy bed!

The orangery, a bit lacking in the citrus plants now, but still lovely.

This was a second courtyard beyond the first.

With a big fancy clock!

More gardens!

Unfortunately the chapel couldn't be photographed, but it was most lovely inside!

This was the tutor garden (I think). It was a bit odd, but had a bunch of rose bushes in it, which I can only imagine will be lovely when in bloom.

Eventually after a full day of wandering it was time to go... I do plan to come back later, if only to see all the gardens in bloom!