Hampton Court House

The Old Court House is a Grade II* listed house located off Hampton Court Green in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames; its origins date back to 1536. The architect Sir Christopher Wren, who lived there from 1708 to 1723, was given a 50-year lease on the property by Queen Anne in lieu of overdue payments for his work on St Paul's Cathedral. The lease passed from Wren's son to his grandson. It was purchased from the Crown Estate in 1984.King Henry VIII obtained the newly built Hampton Court Palace from Cardinal Wolsey in 1526. From that time onwards, all the property around Hampton Court also became the property of the monarch and this included The Old Court House. It is the only house on Hampton Court Green, other than Hampton Court itself, to have a garden that stretches to the River Thames.Wren's dining room is now used as a study. This beautifully proportioned room features wood panelling chosen by Wren and a fine marble fireplace similar to the one he installed for King William III in the King's dining room in Hampton Court Palace. Beyond the reception hall, a flight of stone steps take you into the garden which leads right down to the Thames. In Wren's day his most important visitors – normally royalty – would arrive by river, walk across the garden and up those steps to enter his house via the back door. This meant the garden had to be just as magnificent as the house. The building is accordingly surrounded by several different types of tree and copious bushes bursting with figs, walnuts, apples, crab apples, cherries, raspberries, mint and borage. The greenery extends all the way to the river bank while York stone terraces lead to a pea shingle path which is flanked by lawn. This path then leads to a pond and fountain that was built by Wren and which was listed before The Old Court House itself. Wren's tool house is now a charming garden room from which to enjoy the garden in the summer.

Hampton Court Bridge is a Grade II listed bridge that crosses the River Thames in England approximately north–south between Hampton, London and East Molesey, Surrey, carrying the A309. It is the upper of two road bridges on the reach above Teddington Lock and downstream of Molesey Lock. The bridge is the most upstream crossing of all of the Thames bridges of Greater London; uniquely one bank is within the county. The Thames Path crosses the river here.

Molesey Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England at East Molesey, Surrey on the right bank. The lock was built by the City of London Corporation in 1815 and was rebuilt by the Thames Conservancy in 1906. It is the second longest on the river at 81.78 m (268 ft 4 in); it is the second lowest of the non-tidal river and third-lowest including Richmond Lock on the Tideway. Upstream of the lock are moorings for small boats, specifically skiff, paddleboard, small speedboat and open kayak hire, a tour boat pier, a kiosk and van parking space for ice cream and soft drinks. A few metres upstream is a combined side weir and front weir followed by an attached ait, Ash Island. A low backwater against the opposite bank which forms the waterside to homes sometimes called the Hampton Riviera continues to a small upper weir. Molesey Lock is within sight of the walls of Hampton Court Palace in southwest London on the opposite bank through the arches of Hampton Court Bridge, designed by Edwin Lutyens (220 m away).

Hampton Court Maze is a hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace and the oldest surviving hedge maze in Britain.Commissioned by King William III, the maze, which is about one-third of an acre, is planted in a trapezoid shape and was designed by George London and Henry Wise. It was located in the "wilderness" part of the gardens of the palace, of which it is now the only surviving part. Planted between 1689 and 1695, the maze is not particularly difficult, taking about 20 minutes for a person to make their way to the middle. It was originally planted in hornbeam, later replaced by yew.Psychologist Edmund Sanford took inspiration from the Hampton Court Maze in his idea to create mazes for laboratory rats to study learning. The maze is referenced in some works of literature, including humorist Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (1889) and Carol Shields' Larry's Party (1997), and is referenced in the Only Fools and Horses episode "Three Men, a Woman and a Baby". It also serves as the inspiration for the maze at Mayer's Nest in Ian Martin's "Nightmare Nest" broadcast for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1975.

Hampton Court railway station is a suburban terminus station at East Molesey, in the Borough of Elmbridge in the county of Surrey, 100 yards short of Hampton Court Bridge, the midpoint of which is a boundary of Greater London. The station is 14 miles 76 chains (24.1 km) down the line from London Waterloo.Across the River Thames the station serves Hampton Court Palace and its adjoining park-side houses, riverside homes, hotels and boutiques in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and is in Transport for London's Travelcard Zone 6; the station is across the River Thames from Hampton Court Park, Gardens and Bushy Park, and adjacent to Cigarette Island Park.

The King's Beasts are a series of 10 statues of heraldic animals that stand on the bridge over a moat leading to the great gatehouse of Hampton Court Palace. The original statues were commissioned by King Henry VIII to represent his ancestry and that of his third wife Jane Seymour. These were destroyed during renovations in the late 17th century, but new sculptures based on the original specifications were erected in the early 20th century. The animals are: the lion of England, the Seymour lion, the royal dragon, the black bull of Clarence, the yale of Beaufort, the white lion of Mortimer, the White Greyhound of Richmond, the Tudor dragon, the Seymour panther, and the Seymour unicorn.

The Hampton Court Palace Festival (also promoted as the Hampton Court Palace Music Festival) is an annual musical event at Hampton Court Palace in London. Established in 1993, the Festival is known for presenting artists across the music genres such as Sir Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Eric Clapton, Tom Jones, Andrea Bocelli, Frankie Valli, Van Morrison, Jools Holland, Liza Minnelli, James Morrison Buena Vista Social Club, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras and Josh Groban. The concerts are held in the "Base Court" courtyard of the palace and continue a tradition of entertainment first introduced by monarchs and nobility in the 16th and 17th century. The event is held over 18 days in June, and is run in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces. The venue supports an audience of 3,000, and the events culminate in a Festival Finale with a programme of classical favourites and a firework display on the East Front Gardens.In August 2010 PWR Events Limited were awarded the contract to promote and manage the festival.

Cigarette Island Park is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) public park in East Molesey, in the Borough of Elmbridge, Surrey, close to the border with Greater London and Hampton Court Palace. Until the 1930s the area was an island at the confluence of the River Mole and the Thames, known as The Sterte as early as the 14th century. In 1843 the island was named Davis's Ait, and a later name of Cigarette Island derived from a houseboat with the name Cigarette which was moored at the site.Writing in 1843, James Thorne described the location as "a noble one", saying that "From its mouth the Thames, with Hampton Court on the opposite bank, form a picture of surpassing beauty." By the end of the 19th century the site was a popular mooring site for houseboats.In 1926 council plans were drawn up to convert the island into a public park, in part to curb the "ever-increasing nuisance of caravan dwellers and occupiers of sheds". In the early 1930s the Mole was diverted into the River Ember and the creek was filled in, and the park opened to the public in 1935.The park is only a short walk away from Hampton Court station.

Hampton Court astronomical clock is a sixteenth-century astronomical clock in Hampton Court Palace.

The Diana Fountain in Bushy Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is a seventeenth-century statue ensemble and water feature in an eighteenth-century setting with a surrounding pool and mile long tree lined vistas which honors the Roman Goddess Diana. Originally created for Somerset House in the 1630s, and remodelled about 1690, the fountain has stood since 1713 in Bushy Park, and now forms a large traffic island in Chestnut Avenue. It is the focal point of two major vistas designed by Sir Christopher Wren, including Chestnut Avenue which is the ceremonial landward approach to Hampton Court Palace. The traffic island is circular and contains a 400-foot (120 m) diameter pool surrounded by lawns, with the Diana statue on a tall base in the middle of the pool. The fountain was listed as Grade II in 1952 and in 2011 reclassified as Grade I.

Ash Island is a forested, drop-shaped island in the River Thames in England, across the weir of Molesey Lock within Greater London on its border. In the same way as Hampton Court, Ash Island's post town is East Molesey (KT8) and the island is administratively within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The main weir is at the downstream end of the island connecting to the lock; the second weir is at the upstream end and connects to the Hampton Court bank. Consequently, there is a difference of several feet in the water level surrounding the island.The island is privately owned and has a boatyard on side towards the lock, and moorings on the lower side. Most of the island is densely covered in trees, its maximum length is 236m, maximum width 90m and it is 25m downstream of Tagg's Island.

The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is a hand embroidery school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1872 and based at Hampton Court Palace since 1987.