KING HENRY’S KITCHEN

All red brick Tudor at the front. All Baroque at the back, this is Hampton Court Palace.

It was built by Cardinal Worsley by the side of the River Thames and promptly appropriated by Henry VIII.

The royal beasts guard the entrance.

We walked through the kitchens, room upon room of cooking paraphernalia all of which could feed up to six hundred people. It was claimed the servants could get a meal from the kitchen to the King’s table in less than two minutes.

The Royal Apartments were "wallpapered" with rich tapestries and portraits-royal. We went on through to the cavernous royal bedrooms where one is invited to sprawl upon huge mattresses look up to the ceilings for some strange light show.

Next is the Chapel Royal where I was admonished making a drawing inside the chapel. It contains a lovely reredos by Grinling Gibbons and this is where the work part really starts.

With St James Palace, Hampton Court is one of the only two remaining of Henry VIII's many Palaces. As far as one gathers, life for the Royals then was continual route between one palace and another. In Henry’s time, as soon stocks of food were exhausted in one place or the smell of rotting material became too overpowering, the assembled royal company would move on!