Hampton Court

Site Visit - may 6, 2018

I only learned what Hampton Court was a few days before the site visit. Originally, I thought it might be a tennis court, like Wimbledon. However, I thought that being aware of where I was going would be a good idea, so I looked up the location online. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it is a palace that was home to Henry VII.

Henry VII was one of the more interesting topics I learned about in high school. History was one of my least favorite subjects; it was hard for me to become interested in the lessons. However, I thought the story of Henry VIII was extremely humorous. I find it humorous that he created the Church of England just because the Pope frowned upon his want to divorce his wife. In my opinion, he threw a slight temper tantrum and with it, altered the country drastically. Besides the creation of the new church, Henry VII’s six wives were also very interesting to me. I have always wondered why some of them were divorced and others were beheaded when the reasons for each separation was due to the fact no heirs were being produced.

I enjoyed my experience at Hampton Court. It is the first palace I have ever visited and was interesting to see how expanse the property was just by entering the gate to the ticket booth. As soon as I entered the palace itself, I was stunned by the gorgeous Gothic style windows and the elaborately designed chimneys. I honestly have never seen chimneys so detailed, not even in one of my architecture classes. The barrels of alcohol that laid around the palace reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the exhibits they have in Disney. I thought this was interesting because it showed that Disney tried to stay close to historical accuracy when creating the English movie.

The one section I was disappointed in of the palace was the Chocolate Kitchen and Chocolate Room. Chocolate is one of my favorite foods, and when I saw the sign for the two rooms, for some reason I thought it would be like some of the other kitchens in the palace that had food in them. I was ready to walk into the room and pay for “Royal chocolate.” However, I was completely wrong. I walked into the Chocolate Kitchen to find a musty room where chocolate used to be made, and then a set-up of where chocolate used to be eaten in the Chocolate Room. However, after leaving this section, we visited the Great Fountain Garden which was so beautiful that it made up for my disappointment. The fountain was gorgeous, but the span of water behind it reminded me greatly of the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. The entire area was the perfect place for a picnic, which I hope the Royals did when they lived there. Overall, I am glad that I was able to visit Hampton Court and was very happy that it was a palace, instead of a tennis court.