PALACES, DISAPPEARED & FORMER

See Also: CORONATIONS The Tower of London; PALACES; ROYAL RESIDENCES; ROYAL RESIDENCES, DISAPPEARED; THE TOWER OF LONDON

Bridewell Palace

Bridewell Palace was built in 1523 for King Henry VIII. The complex extended southwards towards the Thames. In 1553 his son King Edward VI gave the property to the City of London to house the Royal Bridewell Hospital. The institution received its royal charter the same year. It had a variety of functions during its history, including being an orphanage. It evolved into acting as a prison.

Location: 14 New Bridge Street, EC4V 6AG. The gateway (1802) of the former Bridewell Palace.

See Also: SOCIAL WELFARE; WATERGATES Bridewell Palace

Chelsea Palace

King Henry VIII had Chelsea Palace built for his third wife Jane Seymour. However, she died after having given birth to their son the future King Edward VI. In 1543 he gave the property to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr.

Location: 19-26 Cheyne Walk, SW3 5RA (orange, grey)

See Also: TOWNHOUSES, DISAPPEARED Chelsea Manor House

Greenwich Palace

Humphrey Duke of Gloucester (1390-1447) was the younger brother of King Henry V. The prince built a palace at Greenwich that he called Bella Court. Following his death, the property passed to the royal family. It was renamed the Palace of Placentia and became one of the principal royal residences. Queen Elizabeth I was born there. King James I commissioned Inigo Jones to build The Queen's House (1617) for his consort Queen Anne of Denmark. In 1635 the architect adapted the building for the use of Queen Henrietta Maria. She was the wife of King Charles I, who was the son of James and Anne.

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, King Charles II decided to rebuild the Palace. He appointed John Webb to design a new structure. Most of the old complex was demolished. However, only a small portion of the architect's design was erected. At the instigation of Queen Mary II the building of Greenwich Hospital, a home for old and injured seamen, commenced during the 1690s. It provided a naval equivalent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, which housed elderly ex-soldiers.

In 1873 the Royal Naval College took over the Royal Hospital for Seamen. In 1934 the National Maritime Museum was established upon a neighbouring site to the south. The College became part of the Joint Services Command & Staff College. In 1998 it moved away.

The Palace's occupants include portions of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance and of the University of Greenwich.

Location: Greenwich Park, SE10 9NN

See Also: THE ARMY The Royal Hospital Chelsea; NAUTICAL The National Maritime Museum; THE NAVY; THE ROYAL PARKS Greenwich Park; ROYAL STATUES King William III, St James's Square, Cantankerous, Belligerent and Often Unruly

Website: https://ornc.org (Old Royal Naval College is the charity that cares for the site) www.grenhosp.org.uk (Britain's oldest naval charity) www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/greenwich-palace-tudors

Kew Palace

Website: www.hrp.org.uk/kew-palace

Nonsuch Palace

Nonsuch Palace was constructed in 1538 as a hunting base for King Henry VIII.

Sandford Orcas is a Dorset manor house that was constructed in the same decade. In 2023 it was reported that it was believed that one of its windows had probably been part of the palace.

Richmond Palace

Richmond Palace was built for King Henry VII.

Following the execution of King Charles I, Richmond Palace was demolished. Some of its materials were used to build or extend other local buildings.

Rotherhithe Manor House

King Edward II (d.1327) owned a manor house in Rotherhithe. With time the site came to be covered by a tobacco wharf. When this was demolished the remains of the medieval structure were discovered. Portions of its gatehouse have been left uncovered.

Location: The Angel, 101 Bermondsey Wall East, SE16 4NB (purple, yellow)

The Savoy Palace

The Savoy Palace dates from the mid-13^thC. King Henry III had a troubled relationship with his barons. Needing all of the allies he could secure, the monarch gave the Palace to Peter Earl of Richmond & Savoy, a kinsman of his wife. After the complex had passed through various hands, it returned to the Crown at the end of the 14^thC. Savoy Palace was John of Gaunt's palace. It was badly damaged during the Peasants Revolt of 1381. King Henry VII, a descendant of Gaunt, rebuilt it.

King Henry VII endowed the Palace as a Hospital in 1505. However, the institution did not flourish. In 1553 King Edward VI suppressed it and gave the buildings to the City of London to help to endow the Bridewell. Three years later Queen Mary I re-founded the Hospital. However, it fared no better than it had before. A diverse array of activities came to be carried out upon the site. In 1697 its right of sanctuary that it had enjoyed was stripped from it.

The institution was suppressed for a second time in 1702. Its buildings fell into disrepair while the Crown and the Duchy of Lancaster engaged in a protracted dispute with one another about which of them owned the land. In 1772 the matter was resolved. The Duchy took possession of the Savoy Chapel and the outer ring of the site, while the Crown took control of the inner portion. The only part of the Hospital that survives is its chapel. The rest of the property was developed for other uses during the course of the 19^thC.

Location: Savoy Hill, WC2R 0DA (red, yellow)

See Also: THE CHAPELS ROYAL The Savoy Chapel; CHARLES DICKENS Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce; PHILANTHROPY The Royal Foundation of St Katharine; SOCIAL WELFARE; WESTMINSTER ABBEY Chapel of Henry VII

The Duchy of Lancaster

King Henry IV succeeded to the throne in 1399. Since then the Duchy of Lancaster has been held by the reigning sovereign. This meant that the 18^thC disagreement was really between different facets of the Crown. What lent weight to the matter was that those two aspects were maintained by their own separate, mutually-antagonistic bureaucracies.

The Duchy of Lancaster furnishes much of the Privy Purse's income. The latter provides money that covers those expenses that the sovereign incurs through acting as head of state that are not expressly met by the Civil List.

Location: 1 Lancaster Place, WC2E 7ED. The offices of the Duchy of Lancaster. (purple, turquoise)

See Also: ESTATES The Duchy of Cornwall; A TIMELY CHANCELLOR; WEST GERMANY'S MIDWIFE

Website: www.duchyoflancaster.co.uk/properties-and-estates/historic-properties/london

Bona vacantia

Following his accession to the throne, King Charles III inherited the Duchy of Lancaster. The duchy enjoyed an income from bona vacantia. This was money from the estates of people who lived in the North-West who had no will or next of kin. In 2023 it was announced that the revenue would no longer be treated as income by the duchy. Rather, it would be paid into two charities - the Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent Fund and the Duchy of Lancaster Jubilee Trust. The Duchy of Cornwall had already transferred its bona vacantia income to a benevolent fun.

Whitehall Palace

Originally, Whitehall Palace was known as York Palace. From the middle of the 13^thC it was the London residence of successive Archbishops of York. In 1514 Cardinal Wolsey was elected to lead the archdiocese. He used the position's considerable revenues to spend lavishly upon the complex's development. In 1529 King Henry VIII had the prelate convey the property to the Crown, renamed it Whitehall, and moved the court s principal London residence there from the Palace of Westminster.

King James I commissioned the architect Inigo Jones to design for him a palace on the site. The Banqueting House was the only part of the plan that was ever built, it being a replacement for one that had been consumed by a conflagration in 1619.

In 1698 a sheet that was left too close to a fire to dry, caught alight, and led to Whitehall Palace burning down. All that remained of the complex was the Banqueting House and King Henry VIII's Wine Cellar.¹ Subsequently, the Crown granted out to members of the aristocracy leases on much of the site. Townhouses were built upon the plots.

There is a model of the old palace in The Museum of London.

Location: Whitehall, SW1A 2EU (purple, brown)

See Also: THE ARMY Horse Guards; DISTRICT CHANGE Strand; FIRE; HALLS The Banqueting House; STREET FURNITURE Street Signs, Whitehall's End; WEATHER Wind, The Protestant Wind; WHITEHALL

Website: www.hrp.org.uk/banqueting-house/history-and-stories/the-whitehall-fire-of-1698

¹. The Wine Cellar now lies underneath the Ministry of Defence Building.

David Backhouse 2024