A Day Trip to Hampton Court Palace

I first went to Hampton Court in the middle of December, and I have never quite got over it. The whole palace smelled of orange and cinnamon, the Tudor rooms were dressed for Christmas, carols drifted along the galleries, and outside the light was already fading over the gardens. Pure magic. I loved it so much that I bought the palace’s Christmas room scent in the shop, and now, every December, a few drops a day make my own house smell of Hampton Court. That is the kind of place it is.

So let me tell you about one of the loveliest day trips from London: Henry VIII’s great Tudor palace on the Thames, a short train ride from the centre and a headlong dive into five centuries of English history.

Getting there

Hampton Court sits in Richmond upon Thames, about 12 miles south-west of central London. The easy way is the train from London Waterloo to Hampton Court station, direct, roughly every half hour, about 35 minutes, then a five-minute walk across the bridge to the gates. (In summer you can also arrive gloriously slowly by riverboat from Westminster or Richmond; check current sailings.) I have never braved driving on the left, but there is on-site parking if you do.

Inside the palace

Have you watched The Tudors? I could not stop thinking of it as I walked through, because this is where so much of that history actually happened.

The Tudor palace. Built for Cardinal Wolsey and then seized by Henry VIII, this is Tudor power made visible: the great Hall with its hammerbeam roof and tapestries, and the Chapel Royal, in continuous use for over 450 years. Do not miss the vast Tudor kitchens, which once fed a court of a thousand; if you go during the Christmas season you may find cooks at work over the fires, and get to taste what they make, an experience I will never forget. And for a shiver, the Haunted Gallery, where the ghost of Catherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife, is said to run screaming still.

The Baroque palace. A century later, William III and Mary II had Christopher Wren add a whole second palace behind the Tudor one. Sweep up the grand King’s Staircase, painted by Antonio Verrio, into the elegant Baroque state apartments, with their views over the gardens.

The gardens and the maze

The 60 acres of gardens are worth a day in themselves. See the meticulously restored Baroque Privy Garden; the Great Vine, planted in 1768 and still, remarkably, the world’s largest and oldest productive grapevine; and, of course, the famous hedge maze, laid out in the late 17th century and the oldest surviving hedge maze in the country. Getting cheerfully lost in it is compulsory.

In winter, an ice rink is set up in front of the palace, and skating in the floodlit shadow of those Tudor chimneys is as magical as it sounds. Check whether it is running the year you visit.

Practical tips

• Tickets: buy online in advance to skip the queue. Hampton Court is run by Historic Royal Palaces, so if you also plan to see the Tower of London, Kensington Palace or Kew Palace, an HRP membership can quickly pay for itself. Check current prices.
• Go early and give yourself the whole day; there is far more here than you expect.
• Take the free audio guide, or a guided tour; the palace’s stories are half the magic.
• The grounds are made for a picnic in warmer months.

• The best time of all, if you can, is Christmas: the scent, the decorations, the carols, the daily free events (grab the day’s schedule at the entrance desks) and, if you are lucky, snow on the gardens. It is the finest way to meet this castle steeped in history.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

• More escapes from the capital: the best day trips from London
• Where to base yourself: where to stay in London
• Another royal-history day out near London: the Harry Potter Studios and, further afield, Bath