Henry VIII loved building and designing palaces to the extent that when he died in 1547, he left 55 palaces that he could call his own. The biggest was Whitehall Palace but surprisingly, very little is left to see of the magnificent palace and you have to be a spy of some sort to see it because the only remains are underneath the Ministry of Defence! Photographs of Henry VIII’s wine cellar look impressive but it is hardly representative of what used to be above ground.

This is rather surprising considering its enormous size. The mighty Hampton Court occupies 6 acres of land, however, in comparison, Whitehall Palace is nearly four times as large, occupying 23 acres! Hovering over it today with a drone would show an area from Trafalgar Square to almost Big Ben. Under Henry, it was to contain 1500 rooms and physically portrays the might of the Tudors. No castle or manor house came anywhere near it for size, setting Henry VIII way above any potential rival. Henry married two of his wives at the palace, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour and in 1547 he even died there! From 1532 onwards, Whitehall became Henry’s most visited residence although he preferred to celebrate the great feasts of the year such as Christmas at one of his other palaces such as Greenwich or Hampton Court.