STRUCTURE OF HAMPTON COURT PALACE

The main structure of Hampton Court Palace is in the so-called Tudor style, the phase assumed by late Perpendicular Gothic, between 1546 and 1630, and remarkable chiefly for the florid ornamentation which replaced the beautifully-carved foliage and sculpture of the earlier part of the period. The older portions of the building - including the square tower at the entrance, flanked by an octagonal turret at each angle, with a gateway piercing the tower, and joined by an obtuse arch with oriel windows, and the carved timber roof of the great hail, may be looked upon as typical examples of the Tudor style, which originated with the clerical order, and died out when its supremacy was destroyed by the Reformation. The buildings on the right and left of the entrance have been modernized, but one of the original gables, with sloping sides, adorned with griffins, has been preserved at either end. The eastern and southern fronts were restored by Wren.