Hampton Court Palace Facts
How old, how big, how many — the verified numbers behind the palace, in tables you can trust.
Key dates
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1514 | Cardinal Wolsey takes the riverside manor and begins building |
| late 1520s | The palace passes to Henry VIII as Wolsey falls from power |
| 1537 | Edward VI born at the palace; Jane Seymour dies here days later |
| 1540 | The astronomical clock installed in Clock Court |
| 1541 | Catherine Howard arrested at the palace |
| 1604 | The Hampton Court Conference commissions the King James Bible |
| 1647 | Charles I imprisoned at the palace by the New Model Army |
| 1689 | William III and Mary II commission Christopher Wren’s rebuild |
| c.1700 | The Maze planted for William III |
| 1737 | The royal court leaves; George II is the last resident monarch |
| 1768 | The Great Vine planted under Capability Brown |
| 1838 | Queen Victoria opens the palace to the public, free |
| 1986 | Fire damages the King’s Apartments; full restoration follows |
The palace in numbers
| Measure | Figure | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Formal gardens | 60 acres | Inside a loop of the Thames; parkland beyond runs to about 750 acres |
| The Maze | ⅓ acre | UK’s oldest surviving hedge maze; ~20 minutes to the centre on average |
| Tudor kitchen capacity | ~600 people, twice daily | The largest surviving Tudor kitchens anywhere |
| Henry’s wives who lived here | 5 of 6 | Catherine of Aragon through Catherine Parr |
| Distance from London | 12 miles | 35 minutes by train from Waterloo |
| Great Vine age | planted 1768 | Oldest and largest known grape vine; still cropping |
| Long Water | over ½ mile | William III’s canal into Home Park |
| Public since | 1838 | 188 years of visitors and counting |
| Palace age | begun 1514 | Over 500 years of continuous occupation and use |
| Architectural styles | 2 | Tudor at the front, Wren’s Baroque behind — joined, not replaced |
| Monarchs who held court | Tudor to Georgian | Henry VIII through George II, the last resident monarch |
| Chapel Royal | in use since the 1530s | Still a working chapel, viewed from the Royal Pew |
Five facts that surprise people
The Maze was famous enough by 1889 to carry a whole comic set-piece in Three Men in a Boat. The astronomical clock of 1540 shows the tide at London Bridge, because the smart way to arrive was by barge. Wren’s plan was to demolish the entire Tudor palace — only money and Mary II’s death stopped him. The Great Vine’s grapes were reserved for the royal table until 1920; now they’re sold to visitors each September. And the screen credits keep coming: Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light and The Favourite all filmed here.
Numbers are better with stories
A guide turns every date in these tables into a scene - private tours from $232 per group.
Dig into the full Hampton Court Palace history, see where each number lives with the what to see guide, and compare every ticket at Hampton Court Palace Tours.