Kew Palace

Kew Palace

Kew Palace
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Richmond
London
TW9 3AB

Tel: 0844 482 7777
E-Mail: kewpalace@hrp.org.uk

Web: Kew Palace

About Kew Palace

Kew Palace is a British Royal Palace in Kew Gardens on the banks of the Thames up river from London. There have been at least three Palaces at Kew, and two have been known as Kew Palace; the first building may not have been known as Kew as no records survive other than the words of another courtier. One survives and is open to visitors. It is cared for by an independent charity, Historic Royal Palaces, which receives no funding from the Government or the Crown.

The first Kew Palace

Not much is known of this building except that Queen Elizabeth I gave it to Robert Dudley, her childhood friend and court favourite. A letter from another of Elizabeth's courtiers suggests this to have been Dudley's main home near London, it's possible it might have also been called Leicester House.

The second Kew Palace

The so-called 'Old Palace', sometimes referred to as the Dutch House, was built in 1631 by Samuel Fortrey, the father of author Samuel Fortrey.

The building formerly belonged to the Smith family, and by marriage became the property of Samuel Molyneux, Esq., secretary to George II.

Frederick, Prince of Wales took a long lease of the house, which he made his frequent residence; and here, too, occasionally resided his favourite poet, James Thomson, author of "The Seasons." In 1738, another poet, Alexander Pope, gave Prince Frederick a dog, with the following verse inscribed on its collar.

The house contained some good pictures, among which were a set of Canaletto's works; the celebrated picture of the Florence gallery, by Zoffany, (who resided in the neighbourhood). The pleasure-grounds, which contained 120 acres (0.49 km2), were laid out by Sir William Chambers, one of the greatest masters of ornamental English gardening.
The building now known as Kew Palace in 1735, originally known as the "Dutch House" because of its Dutch gables.
The building was taken on a long lease by George III from the descendants of Sir Richard Levett, a powerful merchant and the former Lord Mayor of the City of London, who had purchased it from the grandson of Samuel Fortrey.
Originally from Sussex, the Levett family (whose name derives from the village of Livet in Normandy) retained ownership of the house, as well as other lands in the Kew complex, until October 13, 1781, when the Dutch House was purchased by King George III from the Levett family for £20,000. But members of the Royal Family had occupied the house as early as 1734, when they leased the house from the Levett heirs.

George III's Kew Palace.

This third structure was designed in part by King George III, and otherwise by James Wyatt. The new palace was intended to be "a late Georgian Nonsuch". Commenced in 1802, it was a gothic "castellated palace" which attracted little praise, being considered too silly for a patron of his standing. The new palace's style was not to the taste of his successor the profligate George, the Prince Regent. In 1828 parliament having studied the accounts ordered the shell to be demolished, and such fixture and fitting as had been installed to be used elsewhere in royal residences. The staircase was in fact later used at Buckingham Palace. After the King’s confinement at Windsor, Queen Charlotte declined to occupy the new building. It was demolished during the reign of her son George IV in 1828.