Royal Mews And Great Barn

The Royal Mews and Great Barn at Hampton Court are among the most important historic stable buildings in England. The Royal Mews were built in 1537 for King Henry VIII, while the Great Barn is dated and inscribed "Elizabethe Regina 1570".

Development and alterations

The Royal Mews were substantially repaired in 1661. Stabling was installed during the mid to later 19th century, and the buildings were converted to 12 flats probably in the later 19th or early 20th century during extensive restoration work. The flats were refurbished in the 1960s, with ongoing work to the present. Number 8 occupies the former lodgings in the eastern end of the Great Barn.

The Great Barn may have undergone early alterations to create lodgings at its east end, which were refurbished in the late 19th to early 20th century. External stairs to the upper floor are probably 18th century. In the early 19th century, stabling was installed with new entrances.

The Royal Mews: materials and plan

The Royal Mews are built of red brick, mostly in English bond with some English cross bond. Later 19th-century repairs are also in red brick. Dressings are in stone and red brick, including a moulded stone arch brought from Hampton Court Palace in 1537. The roofs are plain tile.

The building forms a rectangular block set around an open cobbled courtyard, reached through an archway on the north side. Two-storey and attic ranges (with a third level of windows on the south and part of the east ranges) surround the courtyard. In the south-west corner is an arched passage leading to the rear of the building.

Originally the ground floor probably housed stabling with haylofts and tack rooms above and accommodation in the attics. Now the north and east ranges are residential on all floors. Set back along the ground floor of the west range (now garages) is a Tuscan arcade, the remains of stabling probably built in 1661 and divided by later partitions. The ground floor of the south range is divided into former stable units between slender partitions. In the south-east corner is a set of later 19th-century stables and a tack room; to the east of the passage is a further later 19th-century tack room.

Projecting gabled blocks in the north-west and south-east angles of the courtyard contain vice stairs leading to the first floor. The building was heated by external stacks set along the exterior faces of the main elevations, a large internal stack to the west of the entrance arch, and smaller stacks set into the south gable of the east range.

The Royal Mews: exterior

The northern elevation of the north range has a central moulded stone archway, the inner arch brought from Hampton Court Palace in 1537, flanked by large external stacks (one with tiled offsets) and outer gabled bays. The eastern bays have 19th-century six-over-six and full-height eight-over-twelve pane sash windows under cambered brick arches. The western bays have irregularly disposed rectangular two- and three-light moulded stone window openings with metal casements and fixed lights, and ground floor French windows behind a splayed verandah on slender trellis supports.

Upper floor windows are similar moulded stone window openings with casements or eight-over-eight pane sashes set high on the wall under cambered arches with scalloped heads. Half-hipped attic dormers have two-light timber or metal casements with square leaded panes. A gabled dormer over the entrance has a deep exposed timber box and replaced horned sashes. Gables have stone kneelers.

The east range has replaced metal casements and sashes on the eastern elevation, set between the remnants of two large upper floor stacks. The south range has irregular fenestration, mainly casements, including two possibly early windows in the rear wall of a tack room, a diamond-paned metal casement to the tack room off the 19th-century stables, an external stack, and small internal gable stacks. The south gable wall of the west range was largely rebuilt in the later 19th or early 20th century. The west elevation has repaired upper external stacks and irregular fenestration including late 19th- or early 20th-century metal casements with rectangular leaded panes in plain brick openings.

Throughout, external and ridge stacks have repaired and rebuilt single or multiple square shafts set diagonally on shouldered bases.

The courtyard

The rear entrance has a four-centred arch in chamfered brick. Many of the outer faces of stone door and window architraves were replaced or repaired in the later 19th century, but those to the south-east vice stair and the jambs of the north-west vice stair have early four-centred arched openings.

Windows on both floors are one- or two-light casements with leaded glazing in rectangular moulded stone openings, each light with a shallow four-centred head. Some are set at half-storey level. Doors are ledged and braced with vertical boards. Other openings are enlarged garage door openings and a circa 1900 door under a tall overlight under a cambered arch leading to upper floor flats in the west range. Dormers are flat-roofed with similar casements.

The Royal Mews: interior

Set back from the front wall of the west range is a Tuscan arcade of timber columns on brick or stone bases on stone pads, running the length of the range but interrupted by the inserted stair to the upper floors. The southern bays retain the timber spandrels of the arcade; the remainder have replaced braces. A slight timber-framed partition, probably 18th century, with horizontal boarding, separates two units which are linked by a ledge and brace door with long strap iron hinges. The wall to the south is a brick-nogged timber-framed partition. The units do not correspond with the bays of the arcade. Floors are buff Dutch brick or tile, some set on edge, in herringbone pattern at the front of the stables and rectangular pattern at the rear. Ceilings are replaced.

The south range retains two units divided by a chamfered timber shaft with a moulded cap set into a later slender scantling timber-framed partition with brick nogging. The easternmost has chamfered ceiling beams, timber hay racks and troughs, and herringbone and rectangular pattern brick or tile floors remain in situ. To the west, the stables have been refurbished in the later 19th century to provide a tack room with a plain stone fireplace with an unusual convex cast iron grate. Walls are lined in vertical tongue-and-groove boards. Window openings have deep chamfered reveals; iron casements retain latches.

To the south-east is a set of intact good later 19th-century stalls and a loose box, with boarded partitions and linings, with ramped rails on slender sticks. The loose box door has inset door furniture. Floors are brick and tile. Troughs, hay racks, harness racks, meal bins, and fixings survive. Leading off it is a tack room lined in tongue-and-groove boarding and with cupboards, saddle racks, and other storage and preparation areas intact. The window opening is chamfered and has two four-centred arched lights and diamond pattern leaded glazing. Floors are herringbone brick and rectangular pattern in the stalls.

The first floor of the west and north range has three stone four-centred arched chimneypieces with chamfered jambs. The south-east vice stair has a late 17th-century timber balustrade with square newels, hefty turned balusters, and a moulded rail. At the base of the stair is a cupboard with a plain panelled door. The north-west stair was not seen but is said to be similar.

Roofs, accessible in the north range and north of the east range, are of wind-braced butt-purlin construction with cranked collars, with considerable probably circa 1900 replacement timber. The roofs were substantially repaired in 1661.

Ancillary features to the Royal Mews

Attached to the external west elevation is a range of four red brick, tile-roofed, later 19th-century single-storey gabled outbuildings. The northernmost, used as a smithy and with the range in situ, has an arched gable opening with vents; the others have vertically boarded doors. Entrance doors in arched moulded brick openings are panelled, under overlights with vertical glazing bars. The window is a timber casement also under an overlight.

The Great Barn: materials and plan

The Great Barn is built of red brick in English cross bond, with diaper work and banding in burnt headers on the southern elevation. There are buff brick entrances in Flemish bond, red brick, stock brick and stone dressings, and plain tile roofs which are probably late 19th century.

The barn is set slightly skew from the alignment of the Mews. It is approximately 47 metres (75 feet) in length in 14 bays. It was lit and ventilated by two ranges of narrow round-headed openings on the north, south, and west elevations. A large central round-arched carriage entrance on the north elevation is bricked up. Early 19th-century entrances to each side on both elevations lead to four sets of stabling each side of a central spine wall.

Two sets of external stairs on the south elevation give access to the upper floor, which is one space, subdivided with later 20th-century divisions, and open to the roof. The eastern two bays form a separate two-storey house said to have been the lodgings of the Keeper of the King's Horse.

The barn was heated by a large internal stack between the barn and lodgings, a rear external stack which has been curtailed, two stacks set each side of the west gable, and an external stack to the rear of the lodgings.

The Great Barn: exterior

The north elevation is roughly symmetrical either side of a large central round-headed moulded brick entrance under an arch of double courses of brick. The entrance has been bricked up. Above the entrance is a stone tablet inscribed "Elizabethe Regina 1570". Two ranges of 18 narrow, round-headed vents, arranged at the upper western end as a group of three, and now glazed particularly on the upper floor, are set in deep brick openings, some of which are repaired or replaced.

Four smaller entrances break forward slightly from the original fabric in rectangular panels in buff brick in Flemish bond and under stock brick arches, and with a shallow moulded cornice. These lead to four separate stables. The easternmost stable has a sandstone cill; the others have granite cills. Stables have pairs of doors each with three fielded panels, under overlights with fixed square-paned leaded margin lights and a central opening metal-framed casement, and predominantly buff Dutch tile and brick flooring. A small half-hipped dormer, probably circa 1900, is set into the western end of the roof.

The south elevation is similar and has an external stack which is removed above eaves height and partly rebuilt. Two sets of external stairs in red brick with chunky red brick dressings, probably 18th century with later repairs, lead to upper floor entrances with rubbed brick round-headed arches. Stepped buttresses have been added to the outer side of each entrance.

The western gable wall has brick tumbling in at the gable and stone coping. Three vents are visible in the apex of the gable wall; blocked vents are visible at both levels from the interior of the attached coach house and garage. Small stacks, each with a single rectangular shaft set diagonally on a tall moulded base, are set down from the apex of the gable on the north and south slopes.

The east gable (of number 8), where visible, is rendered with a stone coping. A large internal stack with rebuilt grouped square stacks set diagonally divides the barn from number 8. Rainwater heads, some replaced, are dated 1570.

The north elevation of the lodgings (number 8) is refaced in buff brick in Flemish bond, but adjacent to the break the wall continues briefly in red brick in English bond. The house has eight-over-eight pane unhorned sashes under flat red brick arches and with scalloped heads on the upper floor. (Law's photographs from the 1890s show these as casements.) The door is panelled, with glazed upper lights. The later 19th-century half-hipped dormer corresponds with that at the western end of the barn.

The southern elevation continues in red brick with traces of diaper work. Although there is no evidence of a clear break, the wall has been repaired. A first-floor external stack in early brick has rebuilt shafts. To the west of the stack, on both floors, there is a single vent glazed with small rectangular leaded panes. To the east of the stack on the ground floor are a replaced window and door. On the first floor is a six-over-six pane sash in an exposed box, probably of 18th-century origin but repaired. These openings obscure any traces of vents continuing eastwards. A half-hipped dormer has two-light casements with rectangular leaded glazing. A small projecting 20th-century bathroom addition fills the angle between barn and mews.

The Great Barn: interior

There are four sets of stables with timber partitions and linings each side of a horizontally boarded brick and timber spinal wall. Each unit has stalls with timber hay racks either side of a central entrance. On the north elevation, the easternmost stable has the most complete early Dutch tile and brick flooring. Some later brick flooring survives in the western stable; the remainder is mostly 19th-century sets. On the south side each stable retains some of the tile and brick flooring, including some narrow early tiles in the western pair; the remainder is sets. Blocked openings are visible in the gable wall of the westernmost stables.

The barn roof is of king post construction with two tiers of collars with supplementary struts and two tiers of butt purlins. The eastern wall of the upper hall, against the internal stack, is painted and partly obscured by cupboards but does not appear to have narrow openings. There are none in the stable below. Window reveals are deep, unmoulded, and lined in brick laid horizontally.

The eastern end of the barn forms the two-storey lodgings, defined on the north elevation by a clear vertical break in the brickwork. The lodgings has a later 19th-century staircase with square newels with broad moulded caps, chamfered stick balusters, and a moulded rail. Doors are of four panels; the north-facing windows have panelled shutters and linings. On the upper floor the tie beam has been cut through. Plain square-cut panelling lines the space between the front of the stack and the cross wall, creating a deep cupboard large enough to house a bed. The roof is of similar construction to the main barn roof. The internal stack in the roof space is of two builds. The eastern gable wall is rendered and painted or insulated.

Ancillary features to the Great Barn

To the south (rear of lodgings) and attached to the mews is a former kitchen, scullery, and larder complete with slate slabs, with wide near-flush panelled doors, and a mix of timber and metal-framed windows. Although largely 19th century, it is possible that it is on the site of an earlier kitchen. There is said to be a well in the vicinity. To the west of these is a small range of single-storey outbuildings, one used as stabling, and with mixed panelled doors and timber and metal-framed windows generally of late 19th-century date.

Historical context

In 1537, Henry VIII commissioned the Royal Mews on Hampton Court Green to house the King's Horse and courtiers who were entitled to stabling. It cost £130 and was built by Christopher Dickinson. It is probably on the site of stables built for Cardinal Wolsey. Above the stables were haylofts and tack rooms, and in the attics lodgings for the officers of the stable. Substantial repairs, including reroofing, were made in 1661. The Tuscan arcade in the north-west range probably dates from this period.

During the 1550s, the coach—a new form of passenger road transport favoured by aristocrats and diplomats—arrived in England from Germany and the Low Countries. In 1564, Queen Elizabeth I acquired the first royal coach and Dutchman William Boonen was appointed as Queen's Coachman. In 1568 a new coach house was built at the Royal Mews at Charing Cross and alterations were made at Greenwich, and in 1570 the Great Barn was built at Hampton Court Green. This was the beginning of a revolution in royal transport which resonated through the south-east of England. Hitherto the royal household had travelled up the Thames by barge or moved on horseback, thus restricting the distances it could cover and where royal houses were located.

The Royal Mews are depicted in the background of a view of Hampton Court by Leonard Knyff of about 1702. The stables are also shown on John Rocque's map of Middlesex of 1754. They are not clearly depicted until the Ordnance Survey map of 1863, where they appear with the existing 19th-century attachments and other small detached buildings to the south-west and south-east of the great barn. These had gone by the 1897 Ordnance Survey.