London: Kingston; Sunday, 12 December, 2021

I had a bit longer of a lie-in and after a quick breakfast checked out of the hotel and headed over to the bus stop to pick up the bus out to Hampton Court.

Located 3 or so miles down the river, but only 8 minutes by bus from Kingston – Hampton Court is part of the Historic Royal Palaces (along with the Tower of London and a couple of other sites.) It was originally built for Thomas Woolsey as his own personal palace, but when he fell out of favour with King Henry VIII he knew the best way to hang onto his head for a little longer would be to donate the palace to the King, and it soon became one of the Kings favourite palaces.

The red brick Tudor entrance to the palace would still be instantly recognisable to anyone from the era, and is one of the iconic palace of Britain. Behind the gatehouse is the large Base Court and from here there is access to the smaller inner courtyards as well as the different parts of the palace.

I started by heading up into some of the oldest parts of the building – the apartments that Henry VIII used, these include the great hall, watching hall and access to the private pew above The Chapel Royal the Henry would have used to attend services.

On leaving Henry’s Apartments you can walk straight into the newer part of the palace, originally rebuilt during the reign of William and Mary some 150 years after Henry VIII the first suite of rooms you reach are actually modelled on the even more recent Georgian styles and tastes.

Normally you would be able to continue on from the Georgian rooms into the apartments that were built for William and Mary, but due to building works taking place at the time in the palace some rooms had been closed so instead there was a diversion down the back stairs into Fountain Court and back towards Base Court.

Instead of heading straight for Williams apartments I instead visited the Henry VIII kitchens, which show how the great feasts that used to take place at the palace during his reign would have been prepared. At the end of the exhibition you exit past a small café, which given the time I decided to grab lunch in. For what I had it turned out to be my most expensive lunch relative to value of the year, with a packet of crips costing £2.30!

After a deeply unsatisfying, if eye wateringly expensive lunch, I headed over to look round the William III apartments before heading out into the grounds to look around the gardens of the palace from the formal lawns of the East Gardens to the intricate planting of the Privy Garden.

I had a quick look round some of the smaller gardens, as well as the Great Vine, before heading over to the palace maze – the oldest hedge maze in the UK – to have a wander around that, before heading back over to the bus stop and catching the bus back into Kingston.

I grabbed a considerably better value dinner in a Yo Sushi in the Bentalls centre before popping back to the hotel, grabbing my bag and starting my long journey back home.