| Summary : The site of Greenwich Palace or the Tudor Palace of Placentia, a royal palace built by Henry VII on the site of an early medieval manor house. Henry VII created the royal palace on the site of the manor house in 1485-91. Henry VIII was born at Greenwich Palace on 28th June 1491 and during his reign, Greenwich Palace was on an equal standing with his other great palaces of Eltham, Richmond, Hampton Court and Oatlands. Five of his queens also held court at Greenwich. He built a recreational area at the palace which included stables, a tennis court, cockpit and a tiltyard for jousting. Here, Henry spent much time indulging in his favourite sports and pastimes. In the 17th century the Tudor palace was demolished to make way for a new palace. In 1616 a new palatial building, The Queen's House, was begun by James I to a design by Inigo Jones for Queen Anne of Denmark. In 1662 Charles II commissioned John Webb to design a new palace and to repair and enlarge the Queen's House. This resulted in the demolition of the Tudor palace and construction of King's House. This was the first phase of a large palace which was never completed. The King's House represented the last royal residence at Greenwich, as royal interest was now directed at Hampton Court. In the latter part of the 17th century the King's House and adjoining land was converted into a Naval Hospital.The original Tudor Greenwich Palace consisted of two brick and timber courts with a hedged garden. The Queen's accommodation of a great chamber, parlour and gallery looked over this garden. Excavations have uncovered the remains of a riverside range, the Royal Chapel and the undercroft of the Great Hall. A Time Team excavation in 2003 also found the foundations of Henry VIII's tiltyard. |
More information : [TQ 38587799] Site of GREENWICH PALACE [GT]
[TQ 38477799] LANDING PLACE [GT] (Site of)
[TQ 38367783] ROYAL STABLE [GT] (Site of)
[TQ 38627804] PALACE CHAPEL [GT] (Site of)
[TQ 38697785] TILT YARD [GT] (Site of)
[TQ 38697782] THE TURRET [GT] (Site of)
[TQ 38607800] Undercroft - part of 16th century palace
[TQ 38597795] Foundations of old palace. (Section in possession of F.J.B) (1-5)
The previous manor house was reduced to its lowest courses, which provided the foundations for the new palace of Henry Vii, sometime between 1485 and 1491. The buildings were of brick and timber comprising of two courts; the Queen's accommodation included a great chamber, a parlour and a gallery overlooking the garden. The garden was hedged and contained an arbour. Many alterations took place during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, including changing it's name to Placentia, parts of which survive incorporated into one of the houses on Part Vista (NAR no. TQ 37 NE 37). A new riverside range was added, this was identified during the 1970-71 excavations. These buildings remained relatively unchanged until demolition in the 17th century to make way for a new palace which was never completed.
Please note that a comprehensive description of the palace is in the History of the King's Works. (6-8)
Archaeologists from the Museum of London have found the only known surviving floor of a Royal Tudor Chapel of Greenwich Palace or the Palace of Placentia. Henry VIII, Elizabeth and Mary were all born at Greenwich. Remains of Tudor stonework was retrieved both the Chapel, the adjoining vestry and the old river frontage. (9)
Henry VIII improved the house left by his father Henry VII and added a recreational area which reflected his love for sports, hunting and jousting. This included a tiltyard and tiltyard towers, tennis courts, a cockpit. (10)
The Time Team dug various trenches to find the earlier remains of the Tudor palace which now lies under the former Royal Naval College. Their investigations located both the armoury and the tiltyard and its associated banqueting hall and other Tudor buildings. (11)
Tudor Palace (TQ 38544 77987) After the demolition of the medieval house, trenches were cut for a new and extensive sewage system, in preparation for the construction of the palace. These intersected those belonging to the former manor house. New garderobe shafts discharged into brick-vaulted chambers, three of which were excavated in the early 1970s. Between these chambers ran brick culverts about 60cm wide and originally about 1.5m high.
After the completion of the culverts in the early C16 the main brick walls of the palace were begun. The principal buildings of the Tudor palace were arranged around an inner courtyard. Further outer courtyards are illustrated and described in historical sources. The Tudor palace was a huge complex and was clearly modified many times over its life. Archaeological investigations aid our understanding of the construction phases and alterations. Contemporary illustrations, particularly those by Antonius Wyngaerde (c.1525-1571), a Flemish artist whose drawings of the palace from both river and park in c.1558 are an invaluable source, and archaeological evidence (chiefly Dixon's excavations of 1970-1) indicate that the north (principal) range, facing the river, was approximately 120m long. At its east end was the royal chapel, with the remainder comprising state rooms and the king's privy rooms. Further evidence of the chapel's east end was revealed by the Museum of London Archaeology Service in 2006 including a monochrome tiled floor. At the west end of the range was the king's privy kitchen, on the site of the earlier house's kitchen. This was partly of timber construction in its earliest phase and faced onto a cobbled courtyard. Almost in the centre of the river frontage stood the great tower, which formed the most prominent feature of the palace. Archaeological excavation revealed the external walls of the tower and its ground floor plan: it was approximately 14m from north to south and 12m from west to east. Remains of three polygonal projecting bays were uncovered forming the riverfront, the two to the east belonging to the great tower. The central one of the three contained a staircase. Another polygonal projecting bay, set diagonally, stood at the south-east corner of the tower; a porch in the angle between the tower and the north range gave access from the inner court to the ground floor rooms. The first floor of the tower was supported on a central pillar. Wyngaerde shows a fore-building that projects like a barbican from the great tower into the river; visible in his view is an arched opening to the west side of the fore-building, interpreted as a passage which allowed access along the riverbank from the tower. This is believed to date to Henry VIII's palace improvements contemporary with his construction of the tiltyard. To the east of the tower, excavations revealed part of the abutting range. Along its northern side, linking with the tower's staircase turret, ran a corridor floored with yellow and green tiles. As the main river entrances of the earlier Tudor palace are known to have been located to the east of Dixon's excavated area and west of the royal chapel, it is likely that the corridor ran from this entrance along the ground floor of the range to the great tower, and so to the privy apartments. Not long after the completion of the great tower the staircase turret was extended to the west. This is believed to have partly housed Henry VIII's library. By the early C17 the monarch's river access was moved from its former position to enter the palace through this extension to the tower, providing more direct access to the privy apartments.
The west range of the palace remains largely unexcavated, although Dixon excavated a trench across the centre of the range as well as the presumed south end of it confirming details of its survival and extent. It was of two storeys and documentary sources suggest that the queen's lodgings were here with the queen's privy kitchen at the north end of the range separated from the king's privy kitchen by the aforementioned cobbled yard. The very northern end of the range has been identified by excavation. Written sources indicate that a gallery linked this range to the friary church and House of the Observant Friars to the west. The south range was also sampled and evidence for a number of garderobes and chimney stacks recorded. This range may have also housed the extended queen's lodgings later in the C16 to early C17. In the garden at the corner of the south and west ranges a rectangular building was added and it has been postulated that this is the real tennis court referred to in documentary sources. The south range was also brick-built and of at least two storeys (demonstrated by the recording of the base of a staircase), and indeed Wyngaerde's view from the park suggests a two-storey range with an attic here. The east range has been found by partial excavation to have been a narrow range giving access to the royal chapel at the north-east corner of the palace. The palace's great hall, a timber-framed structure, extended eastward from this range parallel with, and to the south of, the chapel. A later vaulted brick and stone undercroft was inserted beneath the great hall in 1604 and survives beneath the Queen Anne Block.
Scheduled as `Greenwich Palace'. (12)
For the designation record of this site please see The National Heritage List for England. (13)
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