Whitehall Palace

Introduction

Cardinal Wolsey established a garden and orchard at York Place, later to be taken over by Henry VIII in 1529 and known as Whitehall Palace. He converted the orchard into the Privy Garden with a magnificent fountain in 1542. About 1640 this garden was converted to 16 grass plots. It accommodated statuary from 1651 till 1659 when they were vandalised by a Puritan. A Great Dial was installed in the 1660s. A garden terrace was pushed out into the Thames in 1691. The site was gradually developed over the following decades, and much was lost by the creation of the Thames Embankment in the late 19th century.