Hampton Court, Surrey, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest:   

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Hampton Court was built from 1514 by Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530), Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII (1491-1547). He also enclosed parks and walled them in part. The king acquired the property in 1528 and developed it as his palace, extending both building and grounds. These alterations were completed by 1540 and few new ones were made until the reign of James I from 1603 to 1625. Rangers and keepers were appointed to manage the newly created Hampton Court Chase and the extended parkland around the Palace.

Charles I (1600-1649) had plans for a grand design involving waterworks at Hampton Court which resulted in the construction of the Longford River (see Bushy Park). His scheme was abandoned in 1641 when the Civil War commenced. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (1653-1658), moved into Hampton Court in 1654 and made his own improvements. An inventory made at the time of his death details the numerous statues that adorned the Privy Garden which included the Arethusa (Diana) fountain bought from Somerset House and later moved to Bushy Park.

The first two years of the Restoration under Charles II in 1660 saw heavy expenditure at Hampton Court, the money being spent on repairs and improvements to both the Palace and the gardens. Late in 1661 Charles proposed more extensive works to include a canal (The Long Water) and flanking avenue (possibly designed by Andre Mollet but executed by Adrian May, Surveyor of the King's Gardens) in the House Park, both centred on the balcony in the Queen's Lodgings on the east front. John Evelyn who visited in 1662 noted in his diary 'The Park formerly a flat, naked piece of Ground, now planted with sweete rows of Lime-trees, and the Canale for water now neere perfected' (Travers Morgan 1982).

When in 1688 William and Mary accepted the offer of the Crown in place of James II, they were keen to create a sumptuous and modern palace out of the old one at Hampton Court. The Surveyor General of the King's Works, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), began drawing up ambitious schemes for the almost complete reconstruction of the Palace. The alterations to the gardens under William Talman (1650-1719), George London (1640-1714), and Henry Wise (1653-1738) were to be equally far reaching and included the Great Parterre (Fountain Garden), the Privy Garden, and the Wilderness. Queen Mary moved much of her extensive botanical collection from Holland to the Glass Case Gardens at Hampton Court.

With the succession of Queen Anne in 1702, Henry Wise was given the position of Master Gardener. Although Charles Bridgeman, the Royal Gardener between 1728 and his death in 1738, made a series of surveys of the garden, and Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1716-1783), as Master Gardener from 1764, both lived at Wilderness House west of the Lion Gates, neither appears to have made significant changes to the gardens. During the 18th and early 19th centuries Hampton Court became a popular place for tourists and a detailed guidebook was printed in 1817. The gardens retained their popularity despite published criticisms which deplored 'the lawns shaped with mathematical precision and bordered with meagre evergreens, placed at given distances' (Keane 1850).

The Palace and its gardens were somewhat neglected by George IV and J C Loudon wrote in 1833 'The gardens are excellent of their kind, and it is to be regretted that they are not kept up either with sufficient care in point of order and neatness or due attention to their original form' (Gardener's Magazine 1833). Three years later the Commissioners of Woods and Forests had taken responsibility for the Wilderness, Fountain Garden, and Pavilion Terrace and these were hence forward referred to as the Public Gardens. The Privy Garden and the Glass Case Gardens were retained for the grace and favour residents and were referred to as the Private Gardens. Hampton Court Park was opened to the public in 1893.

From the mid 19th century there was a craze for flower carpet bedding and some outstanding examples were to be found at Hampton Court. From the 1850s the Fountain Garden became famous for the floral displays although the yews and hollies had become very overgrown. The craze for carpet bedding declined rapidly in the 1880s and by 1926 the gardens were being praised for their herbaceous and mixed borders.

Replanting of the lime avenues in Hampton Court Park was undertaken from 1987 and continued after the considerable losses during the storms of 1987 and 1990. The Privy Garden was reconstructed between 1993 and 1995 when it was reopened.

The site is today (1998) managed by Historic Royal Palaces.