Overview

My wife and I had a spare day off so we took the opportunity to visit Hampton Court Palace, not a quick journey from Somerset, but with Anne Boleyn, in the family, we've wanted to visit for a while now. Getting to the palace was easy enough (up the A303 and the M3) and when we arrived, we pulled into the entrance and asked the security operative where the disabled parking was, and he very politely advised us of the directions and how to gain access. We parked up and it was 15 minutes before the palace opened to the public, so we took some time to admire the outside, the architecture is amazing and deserves to be studied not glanced at. We gained swift entry (being members helps) having pre-booked our tickets and entered the first vast courtyard. This place is huge with so many alleyways and rooms, it's easy to get lost (as we did in the William III apartments). We started with the kitchens which were just huge and so detailed, look up... that's one piece of advice I would say for each room you enter (the William III staircase will explode your head!!). We met a number of very helpful staff, all very friendly and only too happy to help with information or general assistance with getting around. Talking of getting around, this is a very old building, however, you will find a lift to take you to the state apartments and from here you can ask staff to direct you back to the Great Hall, other than that, there is the odd uneven surface, but on the whole, we found it quite accessible. The only inaccessible area I found was the disabled toilets in the first courtyard, which had a Yale lock on it and not a radar lock. We spent a few hours taking it all in, including the one remaining piece of evidence of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's love in the Great Hall. We did not get to the gardens as we were too tired, nor did we get to the maze (I haven't done that since I was 7), but they are both worth the effort. After we had finished we went outside and put a drone up by the river and took some awesome aerial images from 400ft up, which gave us a nice overview of the property. We will certainly return very soon (Halloween events are coming up).

Transport & Parking

Access

Toilets

Staff

Photos

Video