Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Building of the palace began in 1515 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the King to check his disgrace; Henry VIII later enlarged it. Along with St James's Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many owned by King Henry VIII. In the following century, King William III's massive rebuilding
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