Your guide to a half day at HAMPTON COURT PALACE! Complete directions and hidden gems - official video guide

The palace is divided into four areas - Tudorian kitchen, Tudorian apartments, Stuart, and Georgian. It’s only logical to follow this chronological order, and insert royal collections and the garden as you walk past them (see below).

There’re a number of hidden gems that would likely be missed by a sloopy tourist - you don’t want to be one do you? Marked in red.

So here we go.

Clip: Henry VIII's kitchens, HAMPTON COURT PALACE

Stop #1. TUDORIAN || After getting your tickets you might as well start just next door - Henry VIII’s kitchen. Live actors will be roasting beef joint and making sugar sculptures.

Following onto Henry VIII’s apartments, try not to miss out the live action. Musicians with period instruments. Actors. And there’re also a number of kid’s activities depending on the time; in the clip below you’ll see Elizabeth I consulting them for her deepest troubles.

Henry VIII's apartments, HAMPTON COURT PALACE

#2. ROYAL COLLECTIONS || From Henry VIII’s apartments on the first floor, you’ll be led naturally into the Queens’s Staircase. There, take a detour into a number of art galleries showcasing Royal Collection - Cumberland and cartoon paintings.

Get back to the staircase, and head down to ground floor. The chapel will be just round the corner.

Clip: Musicians at Henry VIII's apartments, HAMPTON COURT PALACE

#3. STUART || Get to the other side of the court (chocolate workshops on your way) and continue with William III’s apartments. Here things are about to get dramatic, for it tells the sad story of William’s deterioration after the death of Mary II.

Now finish off with a temp exhibition at the Clock Court just opposite the clock.

Clip: Elizabeth I chatting with a council of kids: Henry VIII's apartments, HAMPTON COURT PALACE

#4. GARDEN || Swans, formal gardens, and a great deal of artificial lake. But now, turn left from the palace’s East Gate and keep walking along the brick wall. And there you’ll see a sports centre for “real tennis”, in action, with actual players. Which in today’s eyes sounds more of a curious setup combining our beloved (lawn) tennis, and squash.

#5. GEORGIAN || Now head back to the Queen’s Staircase and up and up back to the first floor. There you can continue to our last and final rooms - the Georgian Story.

(If you wonder why harpsichord music is playing from behind an inconspicuous door, it’s because they’ve put an AV system there without realizing how it might have transformed the experience into one involving haunted houses.)

|#6 BONUS TRACK || As you exit the palace, turn right into the outside garden. There you’ll find the only garden maze here, and just as you’re trying the hardest to beat it with every means, the staffer will remind (read: yell) you yet once again to go to the exit ASAP, if you happen to be there five minutes before closing.

Clip: Privy chamber, William III's apartments, HAMPTON COURT PALACE

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Time is asset: save it for better with a 25-min museum tour. Or find yourself in my novel, check out the photo of the day and finish it off with a secret prize.

Date of visit: 2019.11

Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger