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Old Palace Yard

The Great Court of Richmond Palace, now a curve of houses that almost nobody finds.

Squares & yards

Photo by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The yard follows roughly the outline of the palace's Great Court, and was called Wardrobe Court until 1838. The Wardrobe itself - the range where the palace's hangings and soft furnishings were kept - still stands on the south-east side, its Tudor brickwork and a blocked arcade visible in the wall.

The Trumpeters' House was built across the site of the palace's Middle Gate in the first years of the eighteenth century, for a soldier whose sister was Queen Anne's favourite, and it is named after the stone heralds with trumpets that had stood on the gate it replaced. Metternich took it in 1848, after the revolutions of that year drove him out of Vienna; Disraeli visited and called it "the most charming house in the world". Marconi lived there later. The yard is entered through the Tudor gatehouse off the green, which is why a courtyard this size can sit in the middle of Richmond and be missed entirely.

Where
Old Palace Yard, Richmond, TW9
Nearest station
Richmond · 8 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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