Hampton Court Palace largest in the world . The palace's Home Park is the site of the annual Hampton Court Palace Festival and Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, chief minister to and favourite of Henry VIII, took over the site of Hampton Court Palace in 1514. It had previously been a property of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Over the following seven years, Wolsey spent lavishly (200,000 Crowns) to build the finest palace in England at Hampton Court. Today, little of Wolsey's building work remains unchanged. The first courtyard, the Base Court, ("B on plan"), was
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