Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, 400 yards (370 metres)[1] south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite bank.
Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace
19 October 1951
Lambeth Palace
1 October 1987
Close to Westminster and the City, the estate was first acquired by the archdiocese for the archbishop (who also has a residence at Old Palace, Canterbury) around 1200.
Map of 1897, showing the palace opposite the river from Westminster Palace, with Lambeth Bridge and Westminster Bridge crossing the river
The Guard Room
The great hall with Cardinal Pole's fig tree in front
Lambeth Palace from the south c. 1685
Lambeth Palace main entrance
The 19th-century range
While the original residence of the archbishop of Canterbury was in his episcopal see, Canterbury, Kent,[2] a site originally called the Manor of Lambeth or Lambeth House was acquired by the diocese around AD 1200 and has since served as the archbishop's London residence. The site is bounded by Lambeth Palace Road to the west and Lambeth Road to the south, but unlike all surrounding land is excluded from the parish of North Lambeth. The garden park is listed and resembles Archbishop's Park, a neighbouring public park; however, it was a larger area with a notable orchard until the early 19th century. The former church in front of its entrance has been converted to the Garden Museum. The south bank of the Thames along this reach, not part of historic London, developed slowly because the land was low and sodden: it was called Lambeth Marsh, as far downriver as the present Blackfriars Road. The name "Lambeth" embodies "hithe", a landing on the river: archbishops came and went by water, as did John Wycliff, who was tried here for heresy. In the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the palace was attacked.
The oldest remaining part of the palace is the chapel which was built in the Early English Gothic architectural style. Lollards' Tower, which retains evidence of its use as a prison in the 17th century, dates from 1435 to 1440. The front is an early Tudor brick gatehouse built by cardinal John Morton and completed in 1495. Cardinal Pole lay in state in the palace for 40 days after he died there in 1558. The fig tree in the palace courtyard is possibly grown from a slip taken from one of the White Marseille fig trees here for centuries (reputedly planted by Cardinal Pole). In 1786,[3] there were three ancient figs, two "nailed against the wall" and still noted in 1826 as "two uncommonly fine... traditionally reported to have been planted by Cardinal Pole, and fixed against that part of the palace believed to have been founded by him. They are of the white Marseilles sort, and still bear delicious fruit. ...On the south side of the building, in a small private garden, is another tree of the same kind and age."[4] By 1882, their place had been taken by several massive offshoots.[5] The notable orchard of the medieval period has somewhat given way to a mirroring public park adjoining and built-up roads of housing and offices. The palace gardens were listed grade II in October 1987.[6]
The great hall was completely ransacked, including the building material, by Cromwellian troops during the English Civil War. After the Restoration, it was completely rebuilt by Archbishop William Juxon in 1663 (dated) with a late Gothic hammerbeam roof. The choice of a hammerbeam roof was evocative, as it reflected the High-Church Anglican continuity with the Old Faith (the King's (Charles II) brother was an avowed Catholic) and served as a visual statement that the Interregnum was over. As with some Gothic details on University buildings of the same date, it is debated among architectural historians whether this is "Gothic survival" or an early work of the "Gothic Revival". The diarist Samuel Pepys recognised it as "a new old-fashioned hall".
The building is listed in the highest category, Grade I, for its architecture – its front gatehouse with its tall, crenellated gatehouse resembles Hampton Court Palace's gatehouse which is also of the Tudor period, however Morton's Gatehouse was at its very start, in the 1490s, rather than in the same generation as Cardinal Wolsey's wider, similarly partially stone-dressed deep red brick façade. While this is the most public-facing bit, it is not the oldest at north-west corner, the Water Tower or Lollards' Tower mentioned above is made of Kentish Ragstone with ashlar quoins and a brick turret is much older.[7]
Among the portraits of the archbishops in the palace are works by Hans Holbein, Anthony van Dyck, William Hogarth and Sir Joshua Reynolds.
New construction was added to the building in 1834 by Edward Blore (1787–1879), who rebuilt much of Buckingham Palace later, in neo-Gothic style and it fronts a spacious quadrangle. The buildings form the home of the archbishop, who is regarded as the first among equals in the Anglican Communion, and is ex officio a member of the House of Lords.