HAMPTON COURT PALACE

Wallpaper Description:

View from the Privy Garden

By the 1530s, Henry VIII's Hampton Court was a palace, a hotel, a theatre and a vast leisure complex.

The King used it to demonstrate magnificence and power in every possible way, through lavish banquets, extravagant court life and fabulously expensive art.

In addition to Henry’s state and private apartments, where he slept, ate and relaxed, and the queen’s private apartments, the palace contained accommodation for courtiers. The style depended on the status of the occupant, but again, were intended to impress.

Around Base Court, the first big courtyard of the Tudor palace inside the West Front, there were 30 suites of lodgings used for the grandest visitors.