Richmond Palace

Richmond Palace was a Tudor royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminster, which was located nine miles (14 km) to the north-east. It was erected in about 1501 by Henry VII of England, formerly known as the Earl of Richmond, in honour of which the manor of Sheen had recently been renamed "Richmond". Richmond Palace therefore replaced Sheen Palace, the latter palace being itself built on the site of an earlier manor house which had been appropriated by Edward I in 1299 and which was subsequently used by his next three direct descendants before it fell into disrepair.

In 1500, a year before the construction of the new Richmond Palace began, the name of the town of Sheen, which had grown up around the royal manor, was changed to "Richmond" by command of Henry VII. However, both names, Sheen and Richmond, continue to be used. Today's districts of East Sheen and North Sheen, now under the administrative control of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, were never in ancient times within the manor of Sheen, but were rather developed during the 19th and 20th centuries in parts of the adjoining manor and parish of Mortlake. Richmond remained part of the County of Surrey until 1 April 1965, when it was absorbed by the expansion of Greater London as a result of the London Government Act 1963.

Richmond Palace was a favourite home of Elizabeth I, who died there in 1603. It remained a residence of the kings and queens of England until the death of Charles I of England in 1649. Within months of his execution, the palace was surveyed by order of the Parliament of England and was sold for £13,000.

Text adapted from “Richmond Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Richmond Palace ranks #433 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #36 of the 329 mapped in England. Founded c. 1501, it is older than 45% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 718 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 20,680 times in the last 60 days, more than 97% of the atlas. 26 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is London, 14 km away. See how England compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗