Hampton Court Palace: 500 years

Hampton Court is best known as the main surviving palace of Henry VIII. But how much of Hampton Court did he really create? The king had lost the principal medieval royal seat of Westminster to a fire in 1512, and in 1528 he adopted Cardinal Wolsey’s Hampton Court, which had been planned anew in 1515.

This talk explains the European cultural background to Wolsey’s magnificent creation, presents reconstructions of lost interiors, and shows how much of the credit for Hampton Court was due to the ambitious Cardinal before his reputation was shattered and his achievements defaced by the infamous King he had served.

Dr Jonathan Foyle MA Dip Arch

Dr Jonathan Foyle was Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain for eight years, and a Curator of Historic Buildings at Hampton Court for as long, during which time he gained his PhD on reconstructing Wolsey's palace. He is quite obsessed with historic buildings; from an immersive career in conservation, research and curating, he says he’s fortunate to have found ways to share many discoveries and insights into our ancestors’ experiences.

Jonathan is an award-winning broadcaster, writes regularly for the Financial Times on issues of architecture, history and craft, and is approaching his fourth published cathedral monograph: Canterbury, Lincoln, Lichfield, - now Peterborough. A presenter of numerous television series including BBC4's Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? and BBC2's Climbing Great Buildings, he lectures frequently at home and abroad, often with multi-media interpretations at fascinating historic sites.