A thirty day journey ends where it began, in London.
Well, it’s the end of the road. It’s been a long journey. It took 30 days to discover and way too long to write. Unfortunately, Day 30 of my Around Great Britain in 30 Days adventure wasn’t especially noteworthy. I didn’t visit any big sites along the way to London. There wasn’t a big adventure. Instead, I drove from Salisbury to London, dropped my luggage off at my hotel, returned the rental, and then took the Tube to Central London to check out the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) for the rest of the day. Since that is boring tale to tell, I’m instead going to share a few places I visited in the following couple days before I left London back to the United States.
Stop 1: Hampton Court Palace
Took me a long time to get to Hampton Court Palace from Heathrow, where I was staying. Coming from Central London is much easier. Hampton Court was meant to be this far away from London, a place to escape the din of city life but still only a day’s journey away. Hampton Court is famous for being Henry VIII’s favorite palace, but he got it as a “gift” from his down and out minister Cardinal Wolsey in 1529. Unfortunately, Henry VIII’s private rooms were lost in the Baroque renovation.
King William III also enjoyed Hampton Court, although not the decor. He started a massive rebuilding campaign here, replacing large sections of the “outdated” Tudor design with the fashionable Baroque. However, work stopped in 1694 after the death of Queen Mary II, William’s wife, leaving the palace with two very different designs. Future monarchs, or their spouses, have left their mark on the palace as well, but no major remodeling has happened since William.
Hampton Court Palace is gigantic, with over 1390 rooms.
The Great Gatehouse leads to a courtyard, which leads to another courtyard, which leads to another courtyard.
The first courtyard is the Base Court, built by the palace’s first inhabitant, Cardinal Wolsey. That gate is the known as the Clock Tower. Although it is also known as the Anne Boleyn Gate. Her state rooms were to be inside of the gate, but they weren’t finished by the time she was beheaded.
Here’s the fancier side of the Anne Boleyn Gate, facing the Clock Court.
The outside of Henry VIII’s famous Great Hall, the last medieval style great hall to be built in a royal palace in England.
This picture really doesn’t do the Great Hall any justice. (Sorry, for the bad photo here. Takes us back to 2008 technology.) The ceiling is carved wood, restored during Queen Victoria’s reign before she opened the palace to the public. It’s truly spectacular and super dark in there.
The walls are covered in original tapestries. Somehow, I got a decent picture of this one.
After the Great Hall, you pass through a couple of Tudor rooms and then BAM, Baroque!
They really went all out on this staircase.
The wall fresco just morphs into the ceiling fresco. Frescoes of this size aren’t that common. Reminds me of Palazzo Te, in Mantua, Italy.
Eventually, I ended up in a series of interconnected rooms common in palaces and, of course, every palace needs a throne room. This one would be the king’s. The queen had a matching one next door.
Now for the State Bedroom with a ridiculous bed. Whether the king (or ruling queen) would have actually used this room for sleeping is a whole other matter. Usually, it was just for show.
The ceiling was also super fancy.
A john fit for a king. William III’s upholstered close stool, or portable toilet.
A palace was also a place for business. Rooms had a multitude of uses by the court.
The Fountain Court, designed by famed English architect, Sir Christopher Wren.
There are also some amazing gardens out the back, or so I’ve been told. For some reason I now can’t remember, I didn’t explore them.
I did check out the recreated kitchen garden based on Henry VIII’s gardens of 1536.
To feed his giant thousand plus person court, Henry VIII expanded the kitchens of Hampton Court. They are wonderfully preserved.
Honestly, kitchens did not change much until the late Victorian era when cast iron stoves came about.
This fireplace is still used today, almost 500 years later!
Stop 2: Chiswick House
Another suburb of London, Chiswick is the home of Chiswick House, a Palladian masterpiece. Well, part of it.
The current Chiswick House was built as an addition to the original Chiswick House, just not actually connected. You see the old Chiswick House was old and outdated. In 1725, to keep up appearances, Richard Burle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, built a more fashionable residence on his estate that was fairly close to the original house. He later connected it to the original house to make it more efficient. Burlington made sure his new house had enough room for his large art collection from Continental Europe. In 1788, a later owner, but related through marriage, added wings to both sides of the house.
Those wings lasted until WWII when one was damaged in a bomb. Being a war casualty and holding an insane asylum for a while took its toll on the wings of the house. The new owners of Chiswick House, Ministry of Works, decided to restore the villa to its 1725 appearance, and that’s what we see today. I have no pictures of the inside, so check out the link above.
I did explore a bit of these gardens though.
These weird faux Egyptian statues are all over the place.
Chiswick House in all its square glory. It’s actually very lovely inside. That wing on the back is the old connector to the other house, I think, or a new building. I couldn’t find an answer on that. Maybe a new building built onto the old connector.
Nice gardens to spend some time in.
The Ionic Temple, named for its Ionic columns.
Final Stop: Temple Church
Now it’s time to head into Central London for one last stop on this month-long journey. Near the Temple Underground Station is Temple Church, a medieval wonder and one of a handful that still remain in London (the Great Fire was quite destructive).
Temple Church was founded in 1185 by those mysterious Knights Templars fresh from the Holy Land. This interesting round church, a design based off the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, was the centerpiece in a large monastic/headquarters complex. The original round church was later expanded by adding a rectangular-shaped chancel, making the church look a bit more like a normal church.
Temple Church in all its roundness.
And rectangle in the back and really hard to photograph.
Even this side of the church is kind of weird. The altar, a Christopher Wren original, is on the far wall and doesn’t really stand out at all. The ceiling isn’t original. It was damaged by a bomb in WWII.
The fantastic round church.
Temple Church is not only famous for its unique architecture, but also the effigies of knights on the church floor. Made famous by the Da Vinci Code, these effigies aren’t tombs, but a couple of the figures are buried elsewhere in the church.
Several knight effigies.
I like this one.
Around the wall of the round section of the church are these arches. Above them are little busts of faces. Some of them are making some fantastic faces.
This one was my favorite. A little devil dog is pulling on this poor soul’s ear. Even greater, these were all painted at one time.
I visited quite a few places on my last few days in London. These three were just places I hadn’t been yet. I did a lot of walking and a lot of thinking. It was very hard saying goodbye to a country I lived in for a year. Since then, I’ve made it back for a visit. I’ve even included some of those pictures in this series. The United Kingdom was good to me, and I can’t wait to be back again!
Start at the beginning of my Around Great Britain in 30 Days adventure!
That toilet is amazing. I can’t believe that still exists.