hi guys welcome to another episode of ultimate bucket list and on today's show
i'm here at hampton court palace one of england's royal residences and
the historical home of king henry viii
located just 15 miles southwest of central london
hampton court palace is the second largest palace
in the country and from the air this place looks absolutely palatial
and it is given that it's a palace it is the traditional home of king henry
viii our most infamous and fattest monarch
and hampton court palace is literally fit for a king and after
watching this video you'll see why so my day starts today at
hampton court station to find hampton court palace you
literally exit the station follow the signs and walk across the
bridge and whoop there it is you'd have to be a complete idiot to
miss it because it's so huge once you go through the entrance you'll
be met with this incredibly long walkway that you'll need to walk down in order
to access the palace imagine if you're a noble person or
royalty and you have to ride your horse down this
it's pretty cool and from the outside the palace looks well pretty big i mean
really big but i'd expect nothing less being a royal palace
right outside just where these goggles are is where you'll need to have your
ticket once you're scanned in away you go but
don't walk too quickly though because the entrance
is probably one of the best entrances that i've ever seen in any historical
place i mean check that out look at the
ceiling detail on that that's mixed in and amongst the colours
of the bricks makes for an excellent photo opportunity
and if you are a photographer or videographer like me
this is incredibly picturesque you can create a lot of cool stuff from this
and whilst you're here pick up a map that will show you around hampton court
palace once you go through the entrance you'll
be met with base court this is the main courtyard here at
hampton court palace and boy do you get some nice views from
here from every corner of this court this
place looks pretty magnificent and there's plenty of things to take
pictures and videos of there's a lovely fountain complete with
couple of wooden people huh she's cute i wonder if she's single
but take your time to absorb where you are because there's plenty of places
that you can go to from here this is a good time to stop
use your map and plan your day accordingly because there is a lot to
see here in this palace my first stop
is the gold and glory exhibition this tells you the entire story of the deal
between the king of england henry viii and francois the first of france to
broker a peace deal in what is known as the field of cloth
of gold this was revolutionary at the time
because france and england were technically at
war and the meeting of the two kings to declare peace on each other
was seen as pretty groundbreaking this exhibit highlights the groundbreaking
deal between the two kings what they would have worn at the time
what happened at the time and there's various historical artifacts
from that era this was seen as one of the most
important moments of history between the two nations
but alas because of both king's ambition and jealousy of each other
peace only lasted for two years before they ended up at war with each other
again so it's down the stairs you go and it's now time to have a look at william
iii apartments and the georgian story and
you'll start with this wonderful staircase imagine
having a staircase that looks like this it's ornately painted and ornately
decorated this looks like it belongs in a museum
in italy not necessarily a palace in england but
yeah the detail in this place is actually pretty amazing
like i said if you're a photographer or videographer this
is a pretty awesome place to take your photos and videos
there's a lot of things to see here so if you do come to hamilton court palace
i guarantee you you won't be bored this whole area is known as the king's
apartments and the first room you'll come across
is this big massively long draw room i think they use this
for public gatherings and look at the decoration on this place
all of these decorations are made of weapons and it has been there for quite
some time so that's pretty cool next up
is the throne room so this is where the monarch
in this case king henry viii would have sat in day-to-day life
and as you can imagine from being a throat room lavish paintings
beautifully decorated candle brush and everything in this room
is incredibly detailed it really is a lovely place to spend some time in
you'll then walk into the king's gallery this is a collection of paintings that
the monarchy have acquired this is a common theme in quite a lot of
palaces being a royal family they like their
paintings and quite a lot of them are on display here this is the guard
chamber this is where the yeoman guards the
people that are responsible for guarding the monarch
usually hang out and get ready whilst wearing this very very stylish uniform
of course and there's plenty of other rooms that
you can visit such as this the presence chamber and the king's
dining room where the king would dine publicly with
ordinary members of the public and check out those napkin decorations
yes those animals are just made from napkins
it's pretty cool to also see the kind of dress that people would have worn back
in the day there's a few other rooms that you'll
see such as the privy chamber where the king and queen would sit to
meet with members of the public and there are some more beautifully
decorated rooms particularly the drawing room right here
complete with the type of clothing that they would have worn back in the day
and take a look at the ceilings because they are just as beautiful as any art
painting that you'll see in any art gallery
you'll even get to visit the state bed chamber which for some reason doesn't
really have a bed in it and the queen's gallery this is the last
room in the state apartment and was usually a private space for the
monarchy but when you're walking around i advise
you to take your time and take everything in because there is
so much to see and do here at hampton court palace far more
than i'm letting on in this video anyway it's down the
stairs you go and you'll get to look at the fountains now
it's only at this point that you realize that it takes
an entire army of people to keep a palace looking pristine
and when i came there's an entire team of people completely replanting all the
flowers around this fountain so this is the sort of thing that you
don't see the amount of work it takes to make a palace look good so
good on these guys one thing that i will warn you about is
that it's a palace it's an incredibly big place and
sometimes walking around it's not immediately obvious where to go
and it can feel like a bit of a labyrinth at times
so here's me wandering around some of the back corridors of hampton court
palace and it's not immediately obvious where
everything is at this point bear that in mind if you have a bad
sense of direction pretty shortly we find our way to henry
viii's kitchens and believe it or not this whole area is
a giant kitchen i'm not joking all of these buildings
are reserved for preparing the king's food
and when you walk in you'll probably ask yourself the age-old question
who ate all the pies it's pretty interesting
to see a medieval style kitchen believe it or not
they are massive and the specific buildings for specific
things like a fish court this is the meat room where they would prepare the
meats for the king and overall this kitchen is pretty much
fit for the monarchy mainly because it is if you stuck for
some reason there's always a helpful member of staff
who's willing to answer any questions this is emma by the way she was
wonderful and she was very very good with the kids
feel free to ask them any questions and more often than not they'll know the
answer but once you've realized how much king
henry viii eats it's now time to learn about henry viii
in henry viii's apartments this is a subsection of rooms telling
you all about the life of king henry viii
here at hampton court and the first room you'll come across
well it's the great dining hall and what a dining hall it is
i mean look up there check out the ceiling detail
it is immense and the tapestries along the wall
they're pretty authentic as well around the great hall you'll actually
get to learn about all of king henry viii's wives
all six of them and there's various exhibits
describing the life of each one and their relationship to king henry viii
if you don't know a lot about history you certainly will by the time you leave
this place along the tables here they'll even tell
you about things like table manners and the rules and hierarchy of dining
here because there's a lot of rules but try not to walk too fast because
this is a very very interesting room indeed and certainly
when you get to the king and queens table
you'll notice the difference in standards between that and a normal
table imagine that this is where king henry
viii and one of his wives whichever one that might be they used to
sit right here behind that is access to another one of
king henry viii's rooms complete with tapestries and beautiful
ceiling decorations and whilst walking through you'll get to
see portraits of king henry viii when he was a bit thinner
and pictures of king henry viii as we know him now
you still get to learn a little bit more about his wives
hey that's a scary picture this is the exact spot that king henry
viii married catherine parr in a simple privy closet
with a simple altar and this is exactly what it would have looked like
but most of his weddings happened in the chapel royal which is the on-site church
here at hampton court palace and wow that's nice especially if you look
at the ceilings the interior resembles westminster abbey
and when you look up at the ceiling this is the famous ceiling that you'll see in
all of the marketing materials at hampton court watching over the
chapel royal is king henry viii's crown which they
keep overwatch over the chapel royal okay i believe it's reproduction but
that doesn't detract from the fact that this
is kind of what he would have worn and this is his own personal church
so that's kind of cool this as well as the entrance
is probably the best photo opportunity here at hampton court
i really do love this ceiling if you're a worshiper
you can actually access hampton court palace free to worship
at various times take your time to explore some of the historical artifacts
including this wedding certificate before disappearing down this amazing
staircase yes another amazing staircase complete
with amazing painting and amazing ceiling detail would you
expect anything less from a royal palace probably not as soon as you exit though
you'll be met with this site of the hampton court astronomical clock
this resembles the astronomical clock i saw in prague
and it makes for an excellent photo opportunity
so you've basically seen everything in hampton court palace now
but there's a whole bunch of green space outside that's just as impressive as
everything on the inside follow the signs to the guns and you'll
be met with this look at those trees look at this green
space literally everything is fit for royalty
there's exotic flowers everywhere golden carriages that people can go into that
they've grown flowers out of everything about this garden is picture
perfect it must take an army of people to make
this look good oh wait here they are literally every
blade of grass every tree is literally perfect and this
is one of the nicest formal guards that i've ever had the pleasure
of frequenting it's also a quiet relaxing green space so if you did want
to take a break away from the hustle and bustle and the
crowds this is pretty much a perfect way to do it check out the main fountain in
the middle of the gardens the most famous of these formal guns is
the privy garden which looks like this this is the one
that you'll see in the drone shots in the publicity photos and in all the
magazines and up close and personal it is stunning
there is so much detail here it's unreal everything is known and trimmed to
perfection and whilst i was here groups of people were working on it
continuously the privy garden looks beautiful from pretty much any
angle you'll need about 10-15 minutes to actually explore it all
there's lots of offshoot private gardens as well ones that we can't actually
enter but you can actually look in and these
are really really gorgeous it's also home to the great vine the
largest grapevine in the world to prove it they have the
guinness book of records certificate right here
once you've had your fill of the exterior it's time to leave
but not before visiting the undercroft shop
so this is a place where you can buy souvenirs and whatnot and get a drink
and use the toilet overall i think you'll be incredibly
pleased if you come here to hampton court palace
it's a lovely day out and you can literally spend three four
five hours here without a problem if i'd known about the expansiveness of
the green space i probably would have brought a picnic
and stuff like that but as it turns out if you haven't had
enough of the green space hampton court palace is surrounded by
acres of public parkland that is completely free to go into and
you don't actually need to pay there's green spaces such as hampton
court green and the barge walk which completely surrounds
hampton court you can literally walk around the river thames just in case
you still need a bit of exercise not that you would because walking around
hampton court palace burns a lot of calories so guys
i've just completed a tour here at hampton court palace
and i've gotta say i'm very surprised it's been very educational
and this is probably one of the nicest palaces that i've actually ever been to
and i've been to a lot you get to learn an awful lot about henry viii and his
wives and why he chose hampton court as his de
facto palace it really really is a nice place
and if you're interested in history this is definitely one to add to your
bucket list okay nin i'm sold what do i need to do
well you need to come here to hampton court
palace it's situated about 30 minutes outside
of central london and to get here you'll either need to
drive it's about 30 minutes take public transport it's just under an
hour or the easiest way is to actually take the train to hampton
court station which is literally directly outside
hampton court palace please note that hampton court and
hampton stations are two completely different places so
when you do buy your trade tickets make sure that you buy it to hampton
court not hampton the cost well it's about 27 pounds but
i'll put the exact cost right on the screen there if you are
looking to visit kensington palace and the tower of london make sure you
buy a membership because you get to visit all these
places unlimited for a year for the flat cost of about 59 pounds so
it definitely saves you a whole bunch of money
is there anything else i need to know yes because of current code restrictions
spaces are quite limited so you have to book
way way in advance go to the website to book tickets
and as soon as you get here you're required to wear your face mask
at all times there's plenty of hand sanitizers and social distancing
so it's a perfectly safe environment and also
be prepared for a lot of school groups that like to visit this place
some people don't like that i don't mind it personally but sometimes that can
annoy some people so bear that in mind if you are visiting
this palace overall it's one of the nicer palaces
that i've actually been to and if you are interested in history
this is definitely one to add to the bucket list
if you have found this video at all helpful please be sure to like share and
subscribe comment on the comment section below and
if you've got any other suggestions for bucket list ideas
you know what to do to eat them at me and forget enough suggestions i'll go
ahead and do that so guys thank you very much for watching and
we'll see you in the next episode
Ninh Ly - www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK