An evening visit to Hampton Court Palace

Had I been asked a fortnight ago to explain what links Hampton Court Palace and the Vatican, I would no doubt have trotted out some facts learnt long ago in A Level history about Henry VIII’s break from Rome, the falling out of favour of Cardinal Wolsey and rise of Thomas Cromwell, and Wolsey’s giving his grand palace beside the River Thames to the king to postpone his disgrace. But since 18 July, I’ve identified a personal connection between these mighty edifices.

The story starts in October 2021 when I went to Rome with a couple of friends. One friend’s sister’s Sicilian mother-in-law happened to be staying in the city at the same time with a friend whose friend (stick with me, it’s a bit convoluted) was a guide at the Vatican museums. She kindly offered to take us to see the Sistine Chapel before it opened to the public! We met her early one morning and were led swiftly through chamber after cavernous chamber of treasures (the Gallery of Geographical Maps in particular stays in my memory) until we reached the door to the chapel. There we remained for over an hour, our necks craning to study every detail in Michelangelo’s ceiling. After a few minutes a small party of German clerics arrived, awed into silence like ourselves. Then, almost imperceptibly, the chapel filled with people, murmuring softly then rising in volume to the brink of excited chatter, until a diminutive monk tolled a handbell and silence was restored. Surrounded by now with many dozens of fellow tourists we realised just how privileged we’d been to experience being almost the only people in that unique space only an hour before.

The week before last, with a group of friends, I joined about 16 other garden lovers for an after hours tour of the gardens at Hampton Court Palace, led by head gardener and estate manager Graham Dillamore, organised by the National Gardens Scheme. Although I’ve visited Hampton Court Palace on several occasions, the gardens and palace have always been thronged with visitors. We arrived at Hampton Court Palace in style, on the riverboat from Kingston Pier. It felt apt to travel to the palace by water, as Henry and his retinue would have done 500 years ago.

When Graham led us past the entrance to the palace out onto the towpath and after a short walk, opened a door leading directly into the gardens, I recalled that unforgettable Roman morning. We entered a silent garden, the day’s visitors had departed and we had the gardens to ourselves. To our left was the glasshouse which protects the Great Vine, the roots of which extend beneath the expanse of bare earth in front of us, its surface cracked following a few days of hot dry weather. We entered the glasshouse to admire the Black Hamburg grapevine trained high above us. Amidst the dahlia border which surrounds this corner of the garden, a life-size figure fashioned from bark leans on his spade, and shields his eyes from the sun. The high perimeter walls which once separated the palace grounds from the path along the Thames, were punctuated with arched openings in the C18, and are now decorated with handsome terracotta urns made by Whichford Pottery, planted with pelargoniums. Fruit trees are trained against the wall between the openings.

The tour progressed to two sunken pond gardens, both designed to be viewed from above. The first features elaborate knot parterres set in a hedged rectangle, a circular lily pond at its centre. Other than the deep pink roses planted within the knot garden, greens and whites predominate, with a few touches of pale mauve, the outer borders containing Veronicastrum, Acanthus and Hydrangeas. We were allowed to walk around the second sunken garden, its lower borders planted with a formal annual bedding scheme of silver-leaved Senecio, red pelargoniums and bushy sunflower plants. Graham explained that they are transitioning to more sustainable planting in the upper borders, with hardy cannas and bananas, Fatsia and Crocosmia. The mid-level is fringed with Heliotropium, part of Hampton Court’s collection of about 20 cultivars, one of its three National Plant Collections. The warm evening sun amplified the sweet cherry pie scent of the prolific purple flowers.

The next ‘compartment’ we reached was a narrow rectangular ‘orchard’ separated by a stone wall from a strip of ground which was planted earlier in the year with Phacelia as a green manure. It’s blue flowers of June, a magnet for bees, were now shrivelled and about to be hoed out. Next year Graham plans to introduce sunflowers into this space.

I loved the looser planting of Penstemon in shades of pink and mauve within the lavender and Santolina compartments of the knot garden. A warm breeze stirred the colourful blooms, the movement a contrast to the formality of the preceding sunken gardens.

I mentioned that Hampton Court holds three National Plant Collections, the others being of Lantana and the wonderfully named Queen Mary II Exoticks Collection. The latter represents the plants amassed by Queen Mary, who reigned with King William III from 1689-1694, for display at Hampton Court Palace, at the time one of the largest private collections of plants in the world. Many of them we saw planted in colourful pots on wooden boarding outside the Orangery, as shown here in an image from the Plant Heritage website.

The enclosed ‘rooms’ of the tour to this point now gave way to the elegant expanse of the Privy Garden. Elements from three countries were reflected in the design of this garden made for William III in 1702, which was reconstructed in 1995. Italian sculptures and Dutch plants decorate the areas surrounding the intricate gravelled patterns in the French style. The narrow yew obelisks are 2m tall, demonstrating the vast scale of the Privy Garden. The original yews grew out of shape when the formality of the Privy Garden fell out of fashion, and were re-planted in the Great Fountain Garden opposite the eastern facade of the palace, where they were clipped into their now distinctive mushroom forms. They are clearly visible from the Long Water, the huge rectangular pond on either side of which the RHS show is staged.

From the Privy Garden, Graham guided us away from the gardens through the palace building, sunlit courtyards giving way to dimly lit interiors, shadowy stairwells looming overhead: a walk back through time from the 18th to the 16th century as we approached the earliest part of the building. En route, we lingered in Fountain Court to admire the baroque architecture, decorated with masks of mythical characters such as Bacchus and Medusa. We learnt that no mains water is used in the gardens at Hampton Court, instead the water features are fed from the Longford River, an artificial watercourse 12 miles long leading from the River Colne near Heathrow.

I went yesterday to the National Portrait Gallery to see Six Lives, an exhibition about Henry VIII’s six wives and their influence upon popular culture. Frequent mention was made of Hampton Court. Third wife Jane Seymour died at the palace shortly after giving birth to Prince Edward. Fifth wife Katherine Howard was arrested there after discovery of her infidelity. Here are a couple of the exhibits: a transport poster from 1922 and a fragment of a heraldic shield depicting Jane Seymour’s emblem, a phoenix rising out of a castle from which Tudor roses and a crowned hawthorn tree bloom. It was originally set in the bridge at the west front of Hampton Court.

Our evening tour concentrated on the south eastern corner of the site. I shall return as soon as I can to explore the rest of the gardens. In the meantime, thank you to the National Gardens Scheme for arranging the tour and Graham Dillamore for sharing his knowledge and time and guiding us through these world famous gardens.

Kew Gardens, 2 August 2024