The Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace served over 400 people a day in the court of Henry VIII. Lavish feasts for the King and courtiers, and meals for 200 staff were prepared in the huge kitchens that still exist today. It’s easy to imagine that conditions in these kitchens would be hot, messy, and unhygienic. But was that the case?
In this video, our Tudor historian takes you through a tour of Henry VIII’s kitchens, explaining how they were designed with health and hygiene in mind. Isaac also tests some Tudor methods for doing the dishes, including brick dust, wood shavings, and boiling in lye.
You can find Isaac and the rest of the Historic Kitchens Team doing live cookery in the Hampton Court Palace kitchens on weekends until October 2026: https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/whats-on/historic-cookery/
Image credits:
The Well Stocked Kitchen. Joachim Bueckelaer. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Kitchen Interior. Marten van Cleve. Skokloster Castle, Sweden.
Portrait of Andrew Boorde. Wellcome Collection.
Cover of Early English Medical Text. British Library.
Possible map of the Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace. ‘The Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, Simon Thurley.
Butchery illumination. Tacuinum Sanitatis. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
A medieval baker with his apprentice. Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Liturg. 99, fol 26 r.
Ordinances for the Household (1526) – A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household. Google Books.
The Book of Curtesye – William Caxton. Printed at Westminster about 1477. Oxford University Press 1868.
Portrait of the family of Hans Rudolf Faesch. Hans Hug Klüber. Kunstmuseum Basel.
Christmas Feasting in the Reign of Henry VIII. Licensed through Alamy.
Monks in the bath. Jena Code Antithesis Christi et Antichrist. Národní Muzeum, Prague.
The Family of Henry VIII. British School, 16th Century. © Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd 2025 | Royal Collection Trust
Boy Peeling Fruit. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. © Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd 2025 | Royal Collection Trust
Splendor Solis. Harley 3469, Salomon Trismosin. British Library.
Credit to : Historic Royal Palaces