When people think of Henrician architecture they automatically think of Hampton Court Palace or St James Palace, the red brickwork has become iconic to us, and we often marvel at what Henry and his builders managed to achieve. Their attention to detail was second to none, the buildings were an extension of Henry's kingship and they had to be magnificent to help reflect this. Nowadays it's easy for us to picture these buildings as they are, because they are not lost to us (albeit nowhere near as grand as they were), but what we can not fathom or understand without the use of historical sources and portraits etc. is how the many palaces that Henry VIII owned that no longer exist in the here and now looked like. We often ask ourselves, 'which was Henry's biggest palace? What was the significance of the palace, and what took place here? What did it look like?'. The answer to many of our questions are Whitehall Palace.
Whitehall Palace no longer exists it was destroyed by a fire, it originally sat prominently on the bank of The River Thames casting an awe inspiring image to all passers-by whose eyes fell upon it. I knew very little about Whitehall Palace, except that it no longer existed except for a few small buildings, including Henry VIII's wine cellar which is currently under the modern day Ministry of Defence building. I wanted to expand on my knowledge to try and imagine what Henry VIII and his queens, nobles and kinsman might have seen, but there were very little books within my price range.
When I stumbled upon this book I was delighted, the book was well within my price range being under £5.00, and wasn't a massive book that I wouldn't have the time to read fully (I'm completing studies outside of full time work). When the book arrived the front cover was attractive, although to my slight disappointment this book does not come in colour, which mean that some of the pictures within lost their full power/significance, such as the portrait of when the building was on fire.
The book itself covers Whitehall from it's birth through to it's demise, some of the prominent monarchs that lived there and famous historical moments such as the execution of Charles I. It provides maps at the very beginning of the book as a point of reference to help the discerning reader understand where the buildings they are reading about originally stood. Minus the colour my only other qualm about this book is that it could potentially be confusing to those new to historical non-fiction, as it contains lots of facts and information. Overall though it's a fantastic book and I thoroughly recommend it.
