Royal court place. One of the criteria of Norbert Elias' concept of a court society is that it existed in space.. The German word "Hof", meaning an enclosed courtyard, can also apply to a rural farmstead with outbuildings and walls forming the perimeter. It has also been used for the palatial seat where the court was held. Thus "Hof" or "court" can become transferred to the building itself. For example, the grand residence Hampton Court Palace on the River Thames above London was where Thomas Wolsey held court as Catholic cardinal (built after the Italian ideal for a cardinal's palace) until his
Hampton Court Palace there. From the 1960s the number of new residents declined, with the last admitted in the 1980s. However existing residents could continue to live there. In 2005 three remained, with none by 2017. It was the elderly recipient of one such grace and favour apartment, Lady Daphne Gale, widow of General Sir Richard Gale, who caused a major fire that claimed her life and spread to the King's Apartments in 1986. This led to a new programme of restoration work which was completed in 1990. Inspired by Wren's work at Hampton Court, the American Vanderbilt family modeled their estate known