Registered Charity No.
277499
1 Malden Road, Cheam, Surrey SM3 8QD Telephone: 020 8643 1236
e-mail:
whitehallcheam@btconnect.com
Nonsuch Palace
In 1538, the thirtieth anniversary of his accession to the throne, Henry VIII began to build his magnificent hunting lodge, Nonsuch Palace. Henry had just acquired the manor of Cuddington, including church, village and manor house, which he promptly demolished to make way for his new dream home. The palace, richly decorated with stucco and carved slate in the Renaissance style, was conceived on a grand scale to celebrate the long-awaited birth of his heir, Prince Edward, and the construction must have made a considerable impact on the nearby villages of Cheam and Ewell.
The palace was built around two courtyards and was about the size of a modern football pitch. The outer courtyard was a fairly typical building of the period, but the inner courtyard was one of the most extraordinary structures in Renaissance Europe.
The upper part was timber-framed and decorated with a complex series of high-relief stucco panels, separated by carved and gilded slate.
Henry VIII died in 1547, when the building was almost complete. and Mary I sold the palace to the twelfth Earl of Arundel, Henry Fitzalan, who later, in an attempt to persuade Elizabeth I that he was her ideal man, bankrupted himself by completing the Palace and gardens. The palace passed to the Earl’s heir and son-in-law, John, Lord Lumley (whose family tombs are housed in Cheam’s Lumley Chapel, see Lumley Chapel page), who, having inherited massive debts along with the Palace, gave Nonsuch back to Elizabeth and became Keeper of the Palace.
The palace remained in royal hands until 1649, when it was confiscated after the Civil War, although it was later returned to Charles I’s wife, Henrietta Maria.
The Exchequer moved to Nonsuch at the time of the plague in 1665, and during the Fire of London the following year. Charles II gave the palace to his mistress, Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, who was created Baroness Nonsuch. In 1682 she sold it for its building materials, to pay off her gambling debts, and the once famous palace was gradually demolished.
The palace was excavated in 1959 and the Banqueting House in the following year. Although the excavations had to be filled in, to prevent deterioration of the foundations, valuable information was gained and a large number of finds recovered, including pottery, glassware, stucco and decorative slates. A case of material from the excavation may be seen at Whitehall and architectural reconstruction drawings (made before the excavation but still giving much accurate information) are on view in several rooms of Whitehall. Of particular note is the full-size photograph over the fireplace in the tea-room, of a painting bequeathed to the Nonsuch Park Joint Management Committee. This shows Nonsuch Palace sometime between 1660 and 1682, while George, 1st Earl of Berkeley, was Keeper of the Palace.
The Friends of Nonsuch were formed in 1991 to fight for the preservation of the Nonsuch Park Estate as an open space accessible to all and are very much concerned with the conservation of the parklands and gardens of Nonsuch Park. They have now commissioned and paid for a model of Nonsuch Palace.
THE NONSUCH PALACE MODEL
Working tirelessly through the few illustrations and the extensive descriptions, coupled with knowledge gained from the excavation, it has been possible to create an image of the Palace that is unforgettable. The inner, or royal, courtyard was of a construction never attempted before, nor repeated since. It was a gigantic work of art. To see even this small representation of the building is to realize why Hoefnagel regarded it as one of the wonders of the world (the reason he painted his famous watercolour)
Actually creating this model has, of course, called on the outstanding expertise of our dedicated model-maker. The Friends’ selection of Ben Ruthven-Taggart, www.modelhouses.co.uk has itself proved sensationally successful. His knowledge and ability to so adequately overcome the problems involved in miniaturisation has been tested to the utmost — and not found wanting!
The Model is constructed in a variety of materials. The main structure is built in wood with architectural details added in various plastics, fibre-glass resin and brass. The most fascinating feature of the palace was its fantastically designed stucco plaster panels decorating the walls of the inner court and the exterior of the building. There are 695 stucco panels in all. For the purposes of building the model it was not practical to carve each panel individually. Instead a total of 149 panels were made depicting gods and goddesses, battling soldiers in classical attire, the busts of Caesars and many other compositions of figures.
These master panels were carved and then cast in silicon rubber moulds and reproduced in plastic resin. The resin casts were arranged very carefully on the model so that no duplicate panels were near to one another. This gives the impression of each panel being unique.
Between the stucco panels, there were on the original building borders of slate roughly 6" wide, carved with a gilloche pattern and decorated with gold paint. These were represented on the model using thin brass sheets which had been acid etched with the design of the gilloche pattern. The brass was sprayed with black paint and then gently sanded with emery paper so that the brass is visible in the etched pattern. This replicates the detail of the gold paint exactly.
The whole project took over 1,250 hours to complete.
The official unveiling of the Nonsuch Palace Model in the Nonsuch Gallery was held on Tuesday, September 6th. 2011, when attendance was by invitation only. In the week following the unveiling, the Gallery was open every day for Friends of Nonsuch members only The Gallery is now open twice a week and a charge will be made for members of the public:
Adults £2.50, Children
(5-16 years) 50p,
Children (under 5) and FoN Members free.
The Service Wing Museum
will continue to open on the usual days and times but that entry
fee will not include entrance to the Nonsuch Gallery.
All images and text
on this web site are Copyright © The Friends of Whitehall 2007
The Friends of Whitehall - Registered Charity No. 277499
