Hampton Court: A Social and Architectural History

Book Description
Hampton Court-probably Britain's most important secular historic building complex-was a center of court life and politics from the late fifteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century. It was also a place of architectural innovation and the site of the most ambitious formal gardens ever built in Britain. This book offers the first history in over a century of Hampton Court, its gardens, and its parks. Lavishly illustrated, the book brings to life the entire history of the building, including the terrible fire of 1986 and the twentieth-century opening of the complex to the public. Simon Thurley, the unrivalled authority on Hampton Court's architecture, interior decoration, and history, sets the building in political and social context. He explores the lives and motivations of its builders, telling the stories of the architects and others who fulfilled the whims of kings and princes. In addition to throwing light on the character of court life, the book makes important new attributions to architects Hugh May, Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Talman, Colen Campbell, Edward Blore, and others.

From the Publisher
Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Also available by Simon Thurley: Whitehall Palace & The Royal Palaces of Tudor England.

About the Author
Simon Thurley is Chief Executive of English Heritage, with responsibility for the supervision of most of England's historic buildings and sites.


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"The book takes as its starting point the argument that the only way to understand fully a building such as Hampton Court is to set it in the political and social context of its time and to explore the lives and motivations of its builders. The picture that emerges is on the one hand intensely personal - one of architects and builders fulfilling the whims of kings and princes. On the other hand, it is bureaucratic: Hampton Court is revealed first as the royal household, then as a palace claimed by grace-and-favour residents and finally, by visitors and tourists as their own." "The history of the building is taken right up to the beginning of the twenty-first century. The twentieth-century story of Hampton Court is one of conservation and of changing attitudes towards opening up the complex to the public - it covers everything from the agonising discussions as to whether to build public lavatories to an account of the private enterprise that caused an octogenarian to make a personal fortune out of opening the maze to the public. It includes also the story of the terrible fire of 1986 and its aftermath." "Social history and architectural history sit side by side in this intriguing account. New and important attributions are made to the architects Hugh May, Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Talman, Colen Campbell and Edward Blore amongst others. Moreover, the palace and its setting are placed in their European context and their long-term architectural significance is gauged." The book is lavishly illustrated with original paintings, prints and drawings, while a specially commissioned suite of plans and reconstructions reveals the evolving form of the buildings.


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