The Old Court House The Old Court House The Old Court House is a Grade II* listed house located off Hampton Court Green in Richmond upon Thames in south west London whose origins date back to 1536. The architect Sir Christopher Wren, who lived there from 1708 to 1723, was given a 50-year lease on the property by Queen Anne in lieu of overdue payments for his work on St Paul's Cathedral. The lease passed from Wren's son to his grandson. It was purchased from the Crown Estate in 1984. King Henry VIII obtained the newly built Hampton Court Palace from Cardinal Wolsey in
Hampton Court Palace Wren's Lion gate built for Anne and George I; and the Tudor and 17th-century perimeter walls. The Royal School of Needlework moved to premises within the Palace from Princes Gate in Kensington 1987, and the Palace also houses the headquarters of Historic Royal Palaces, a charitable foundation. From the 1760s, the palace was used to house grace and favour residents. Many of the palace rooms were adapted to be rent free apartments, with vacant ones allocated by the Lord Chamberlain to applicants to reward past services rendered to the Crown. From 1862 to his death in 1867, Michael Faraday lived