Located in the
London borough of
Richmond upon Thames, and on the river. Palace, originally built by
Cardinal Wolsey in 1514 as his riverside country residence: later, in 1525, when
Henry VIII got fond of chopping people's heads off, Wolsey offered it to him in the hope of retaining royal favour. After the royal takeover Hampton Court was twice rebuilt and extended, firstly by Henry himself and then in the 1690s by William and Mary, who used
Christopher Wren as their architect. Wren was also responsible for the layout of the formal gardens.
It has an excellent
Tudor maze, which you can actually get lost in, and which every schoolkid in London has probably visited on a
school trip..