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Abstract
Hampton Court’s transition from royal place to mass visitor attraction is relevant to an understanding of the history of heritage and nineteenth-century Britain as well as the role of monarchy and the monarch herself. Various explanations have been produced for Hampton Court Palace’s transformation into a publicly accessible heritage site in the nineteenth century. A notable and repeated assertation is that the decision to open the palace was made by Queen Victoria personally. However, narratives on the opening of the palace invite further investigation based on evidence and scholarly research. Based on a wide range of primary sources and secondary literature, this article investigates the political decision-making process that affected the palace’s fate and traces the machinations leading to implementation of changes in arrangements for public access subjecting the question of Victoria’s agency to evidence-based scrutiny. The article shows how questions of access to Hampton Court can be understood in a context of rising parliamentary power over royal estates. It casts light on Hampton Court’s part in the evolving management of heritage sites generally. It demonstrates clearly that Victoria had limited influence over decisions. It therefore highlights and challenges the continued existence and influence of hagiographical royal historical narratives.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Historic Royal Palaces, Explore Hampton Court Palace (Hampton Court, 2016), p. 11.
2 https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/the-gardens-at-hampton-court-palace/ (Accessed 26 October 2023).
3 In 1910 Julia Cartwright, for example, would state that Law’s ‘valuable and exhaustive’ work ‘must always remain the standard authority on the subject’. ‘Preface’, Julia Cartwright, Hampton Court (London, 1910).
4 Simon Thurley, ‘Hampton Court Middlesex: The Palace in the 19th Century’, Country Life, 189, 22 (1 June 1995), pp. 80-85, here p. 83.
5 Ernest Law, The History of Hampton Court Palace. Vol. III Orange and Guelph Times (London, 1891), p. 350.
6 Roy Nash explained how in 1838 ‘the young Queen took what, to the surprise of herself and many other people, turned out to be a momentous decision: the palace was to be opened to the public free of charge’[sic]. Roy Nash, Hampton Court. The Palace and the People (London and Sydney, 1983), p. 191. June Osborne describes Victoria’s youthful enthusiasm and sense of liberation from the control of her mother on becoming queen in 1837. ‘It was probably in this mood of defiant ebullience’, Osborne writes, ‘that she decided to open Hampton Court to the public’. June Osborne, Hampton Court Palace (London, 1984), p. 185. Matthew Sturgis describes how after Victoria’s ascension to the throne in 1838 ‘the young Queen took a decisive step … she decreed that the palace should, henceforth, be open to the public without restriction and free of charge’. Matthew Sturgis, Hampton Court (London, 1998), p. 183.
7 John Plunkett, Queen Victoria. First Media Monarch (Oxford, 2003), pp. 1-2.
8 Julia Parker, ‘Reinvention and Continuity in the Making of an Historic Visitor Attraction: Control, Access and Display at Hampton Court Palace 1838–1938’, Ph.D. dissertation Kingston University and Historic Royal Palaces (2009), p. 11. Even more recently, David Souden and Lucy Worsley described Victoria opening Hampton Court in 1838 as ‘an act of generosity towards her public’. David Souden and Lucy Worsley, The Story of Hampton Court Palace (London and New York, 2015), p. 132.
9 Parker, Reinvention and Continuity, p. 34.
10 Suzannah Lipscomb, ‘Historical Authenticity and Interpretative Strategy at Hampton Court Palace’, The Public Historian 32, 3 (Summer 2010), p. 101.
11 Simon Thurley’s scholarly and extensive Hampton Court: A Social and Architectural History (New Haven and London, 2003) highlights the growing interest in the art collections at Hampton Court Palace in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the strengthening calls among reformers for access for the public to art works. Coverage of events in 1838 remains, however, somewhat limited and superficial. Giles Waterfield writes in The People’s Galleries: Art Museums and Exhibitions in Britain, 1800–1914 (New Haven and London, 2015), p. 289 of ‘Queen Victoria’s decision in 1838 to open [Hampton Court] to the public, free of charge and even on Sundays’. Brett Dolman, in ‘Curating the Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace in the nineteenth century’, Journal of the History of Collections 29, 2 (2017), p. 273, follows Thurley in acknowledging that wider factors contributed to the opening of Hampton Court but concludes that: ‘Eventually, in November 1838, Queen Victoria gave her assent for Hampton Court to open its doors, without charge or restriction of numbers, for five days a week and on Sunday afternoons’. In ‘From a Royal Residence to a Royal Collection. The State Apartments at Hampton Court Palace, 1737–1838’, Journal of the History of Collections 30, 2 (2018), p. 217 Dolman describes Victoria’s assent as ‘an act of philanthropic largesse’.
12 Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 312.
13 For example: Bruce Graeme, A Century of Buckingham Palace 1837–1937. An Unconventional and Anecdotal Study of the Palace, Past and Present (London, 1937), pp. 94-106; Edna Healey, The Queen’s House. A Social History of Buckingham Palace (London, 1997), pp. 123-4; Christopher Hibbert, Queen Victoria. A Personal History (London, 2000), pp. 137-47; ‘Chapter 4. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’, John Martin Robinson, Buckingham Palace. A Short History (London, 1995), pp. 96-124; ‘Chapter 5. Queen Victoria’, John Martin Robinson, Royal Palaces. Windsor Castle. A Short History (London, 1996), pp. 117-35.
14 Souden and Worsley, The Story, p. 115.
15 Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 310.
16 For an overview see Dolman, ‘From a royal residence’.
17 On the Royal Collection’s development see Christopher Lloyd, The Royal Collection (London, 1992), pp. 11-76; Jonathan Marsden, ‘The Collection on Show’, in Jane Roberts (ed.), Royal Treasures. A Golden Jubilee Celebration (London, 2002), pp. 27-43; Hugh Roberts, ‘The Royal Collection’, in Jane Roberts (ed.), Royal Treasures, pp. 11-25.
18 Sarah E. Parker, Grace & Favour. A Handbook of Who Lived Where in Hampton Court Palace, 1750–1950 (Hampton Court Palace, 2005).
19 Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 317.
20 On early visits to Hampton Court see Sir Oliver Millar, The Queen’s Pictures (London, 1977), p. 19-105; Oliver Millar, ‘Vignettes of Royal Collections and Collectors from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Victoria’, Christopher Lloyd (ed.), The Queen’s Pictures. Royal Collectors through the Centuries (London, 1991), pp. 28-36. See also references to Hampton Court in Frank-Lothar Kroll and Martin Munke (eds), Deutsche Englandreisen/German Travels to England 1550–1900 (Berlin, 2014).
21 George Bickam, Deliciae Britannicae: or, the Curiosities of Kensington, Hampton Court, and Windsor Castle … (London, 1742, etc); J. Drew, A Companion to Every Place of Curiosity and Entertainment in and about London and Westminster, Containing an Historical Description of … Hampton Court (London, 1767, 1772, etc); John Evans, An Excursion to Windsor in July 1810, through Battersea … and Hampton Court … (Sherwood, 1817). For newspapers see for example: 14 March 1763, The Sussex Weekly Advertiser; 18 November 1824, Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle.
22 Dolman, ‘From a royal residence’, p. 220.
23 For a comprehensive survey of this period see: Norman McCord, British History, 1815–1906 (Oxford, 1991), particularly chapters 3-6.
24 H.M. Colvin et al., History of the King’s Works (London, 1973), vol. VI.
25 Colvin, Works, pp. 1-26. See also R.O. Bucholz, ‘“The King’s Turnspit was a Member of Parliament”: and Other Tales from the Expanded Database of Court Officers’, The Court Historian 27 (2022), pp. 116-34.
26 For full detail on this see: Colvin, Works, Chapters 4-6, pp. 77-157.
27 ‘Second Report from the Select Committee on Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace with the Minutes of Evidence and Appendix. 14 October 1831’, Reports of Committees. House of Commons Papers (London, 1831).
28 H.M. Colvin et al., History of the King’s Works, vol. VI.
29 Theodore K. Hoppen, ‘Ponsonby, John William’, Dictionary of Irish Biography (2009), https://www.dib.ie/biography/ponsonby-john-william-a7416 (Accessed 23 October 2023).
30 Hoppen, ‘Ponsonby’.
31 Howell-Thomas, Dorothy, Duncannon: Reformer and Reconciler, 1781–1847 (Norwich, 1992); Leslie Stephen (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, (London, 1882–1900); ‘PONSONBY, John William, Visct. Duncannon (1781–1847)’, History of Parliament Online, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/ponsonby-john-1781-1847 (Accessed 26 October 2023).
32 See ‘HUME, Joseph (1777–1855), History of Parliament Online, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/hume-joseph-1777-1855, (Accessed 26 October 2023).
33 ‘A Bill to Authorize Part of the Land Revenue of the Crown for Providing Fixture, Furniture, Fittings, and Decorations for Buckingham Palace’, Bills. Bills and Acts. House of Commons Papers (London, 1833).
34 ‘Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Fees, Gratuities, Perquisites, and Emoluments of the Several Public Offices on the Civil List Establishment’, Reports of Commissioners. Command Papers. House of Commons Papers (London, 1837).
35 Explored most recently in R.O. Bucholz, ‘“The King’s Turnspit”’, pp. 116-34.
36 ‘A Return of the Number of Persons Admitted to See the Armouries of the Tower in Each of the Past Years 1824 to 1838’, Accounts and Papers, House of Commons Papers (London, 1837–38), p. 478. Note Peter Hammond estimates approximately 15,000 visitors per annum: Peter Hammond, ‘The Tower and the Victorians: Politics and Leisure’, Historian 70 (2001), p. 10.
37 Hammond, ‘The Tower’, p. 11.
38 See: http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/A04VALUE.htm (Accessed 26 October 2023).
39 Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 317.
40 Malcolm Chase, Chartism: A New History (Manchester, 2007); Gregory Claeys, Chartist Movement in Britain, 1838–1856 (London, 2000), 6 volumes; Dorothy Thompson, The Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution (New York, 1984); Michael J. Turner, ‘Political Leadership and Political Parties, 1800–46’, Chris Williams (ed.), A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Britain (Oxford, 2007), pp. 125-40; John K. Walton, Chartism (London and New York, 1999); Anthony Wood, Nineteenth Century Britain 1815–1914 (Harlow, 1982), pp. 61-174.
41 Quentin Bell, The Schools of Design (London, 1975); Asa Briggs, Victorian Things (London, 1988); Dorothy Bosomworth, ‘Design Education in the Provinces: Converting Principles into Practice’, in Franz Bosbach, William Filmer-Sankey and Hermann Hiery (eds), Prince Albert and the Development of Education in England and Germany in the 19th Century (Munich, 2000), pp. 111-17; Antony Burton, ‘Putting South Kensington to Work: The Department of Science and Art’, in Franz Bosbach, William Filmer-Sankey and Hermann Hiery (eds), Prince Albert, pp. 97-111; John R. Davis, The Victorians and Germany (Oxford, 2007), pp. 202-23 and 251-303; Michelle Strong, Education, Travel and the “Civilisation” of the Victorian Working Classes (Basingstoke, 2014).
42 Christopher Whitehead, The Public Art Museum in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Development of the National Gallery (London and New York, 2016), p. 5.
43 Emma Winter, ‘German Fresco Painting and the New Houses of Parliament at Westminster, 1834–1851’, The Historical Journal 47, 2 (2004), pp. 291-329.
44 Also noted by Simon Thurley as ‘undoubtedly’ a stimulus to the opening of Hampton Court: Simon Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 317.
45 William Seguier, Surveyor of the King’s Pictures and first Keeper of the National Gallery, had been in charge of the hanging of paintings at Hampton Court Palace and gave evidence to the committee. As Thurley says ‘it is unlikely that Seguier was ignorant of developments at Versailles’. Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 311-2.
46 ‘Report from Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures: Together with the Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix’, Parliamentary Papers (London, 1836), vol. IX, part 1. For further information on the select committees, the art reform movement, foreign models and the National Gallery see Astrid Swenson, The Rise of Heritage: Preserving the Past in France, Germany and England, 1789–1914 (Cambridge, 2013); Giles Waterfield, The People’s Galleries (2015), pp. 20-22; Whitehead, The Public Art Museum.
47 Chia-Chuan Hsieh, ‘Publishing the Raphael Cartoons and the Rise of Art-Historical Consciousness in England, 1707–1764’, The Historical Journal 52, 4 (2009), pp. 899-920.
48 For example: R. Cattermole, The Book of the Cartoons (London, 1837).
49 See, for example, 28 and 30 May 1838, Morning Chronicle.
50 ‘Copy of Correspondence Respecting Free Admittance to Public National Buildings, Museums, &c’, Accounts and Papers House of Commons Papers (London, 1837–8).
51 Contained in ‘Copy of Correspondence’.
52 Contained in ‘Copy of Correspondence’. For a full account of the opening of the Tower see Hammond, ‘The Tower’, pp. 10-14.
53 It is notable in this context that Peter Hammond, writing of the opening of the Tower of London to the wider public, claims that ‘The young Victoria was personally sympathetic (soon she had Hampton Court opened to the public free of charge) … ’, Hammond, ‘The Tower’, p. 11.
54 3 March 1839, The Observer.
55 23 May 1836, The Times.
56 29 May 1836, The Satirist.
57 For more on this see Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 289.
58 Julia Parker, Reinvention and Continuity, p. 48.
59 For example: Anon., The Stranger’s Guide to Hampton Court Palace and Gardens (London, 1825, 1835, etc); Anon., ‘Hampton Court’, Edinburgh Journal 2, 78 (July 1833); Anon., ‘Hampton-Court Palace’, Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 3, 116 (January 1834); Anon., ‘Great Hall, Hampton Court’, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction 25, 710 (March 1835).
60 21 May 1838, The Observer.
61 As recounted in: Evans, An Excursion.
62 2 August 1833, Morning Post.
63 23 September 1836, Royal Cornwall Gazette.
64 Waterfield, The People’s Galleries, pp. 15-16.
65 10 September 1836, The Times. Arbitrary charges are also recorded in: 18 November 1824, Bell’s Life in London.
66 Harriet Arbuthnot, The Journal of Mrs. Arbuthnot, 1820–1832 (London, 1950), vol. I, p. 305.
67 3 January 1836, The Satirist.
68 8 January 1837, The Satirist.
69 Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit (London, 2008, originally 1855–7), p. 311.
70 6 August 1837, Bell’s Life.
71 Including poetry on the subject: 12 September 1837, The Times.
72 Quoted in: 16 October 1837, The Times.
73 26 October 1837, The Times.
74 12 August 1838, Bell’s Life.
75 http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Kingston/ (Accessed 26 October 2023).
76 19 November 1838, The Times. Also reported in: 28 December 1838, Morning Chronicle.
77 25 June 1838, The Observer.
78 Ernest Law, The History of Hampton Court Palace, p. 352.
79 Julia Parker, Reinvention and Continuity, p. 102.
80 24.4.1838 Queen Victoria’s Journal, www.queenvictoriasjournals.org (Accessed 26 October 2023).
81 28.4.1838 Queen Victoria’s Journal, www.queenvictoriasjournals.org (Accessed 26 October 2023).
82 18 June 1838, The Observer.
83 19 August 1838, The Observer.
84 Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 318.
85 Brett Dolman, ‘Curating the Royal Collection … ’, p. 273.
86 Brett Dolman, ‘From a royal residence … ’, p. 217.
87 25 August 1839, Queen Victoria’s Journal, www.queenvictoriasjournals.org (Accessed 26 October 2023).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
John R. Davis
John R. Davis
John R. Davis is Director of Heritage Management at Historic Royal Palaces and Honorary Professor at Queen Mary University of London. Historic Royal Palaces is the organisation responsible for the management of Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace, the Tower of London, Banqueting House and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. He received an MA at Aberdeen University and a PhD at Glasgow University, Scotland. Until 2018 he was Professor of History and International Relations at Kingston University, London. His publications include the Common Heritage volumes, describing the Anglo-German contents of the royal collections in Windsor and Coburg (together with Franz Bosbach, Karina Urbach, and Oliver Walton), monographs on Britain and the German Zollverein, Richard Cobden’s German Diaries, The Great Exhibition of 1851, and The Victorians and Germany, and many edited volumes and articles on British and German history, Anglo-German relations and the history of exhibitions. Current research themes include: the heritage management of royal estates and the political implications of Britain’s Coburg connections.