Hampton Court Palace

About

The Great Hall, completed by King Henry VIII's sweeping extension, still holds a hidden light beneath the concrete where tennis balls once gleamed. Traces of wooden rings seeping into the floor, beneath the heavy carpet covering this ground, leave evidence of centuries of games and gatherings that have passed through. Here, beneath the beams where Henry VIII's iron armor once shone, artists filled in paintings left sitting without clear purpose. The scenes left by the hands of Gibbons and Antonio Verrio now scatter on a light breeze with every visitor's step. Hampton Court Palace, where the delicate bedchambers of many kings and queens still hold their dreams, quietly awaits the passage of time as though it had forgotten its former use.