Conservation and heritage charity Historic Royal Palaces has appealed to the Secretary of State to urgently intervene to protect Hampton Court Palace from significant, irreparable damage from a proposed commercial development. The plea to the highest possible government authority is a last resort for Historic Royal Palaces who believe the historic setting of King Henry VIII’s palace is under such great a threat, it will be blighted forever if planning permission by the local council is granted.

In a letter to the Government Office for the South East (GOSE), Historic Royal Palaces has urged the Secretary of State to issue a direction under Article 14 of the Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995 to prevent the local planning authority (Elmbridge Borough Council) from granting consent for the planning application, and to call in the application for her own determination following a public inquiry.

Historian David Starkey has commented: “Hampton Court is one of the three most important palace complexes to have survived in Europe. It is surrounded by a unique and magical landscape. Anything that gratuitously damages it isn’t a national scandal but an international scandal.”

Historic Royal Palaces has been forced to seek top-level intervention after arguing for a sensitive solution through meetings with representatives from Elmbridge Borough Council, the developer, local organisations and conservation and heritage bodies on an appropriate solution for the site, which sits immediately opposite the Tudor palace, on the south side of the River Thames.

A special meeting of Elmbridge Borough’s Council’s North Area Planning Sub-Committee on 28 October recommended that permission for the application be granted. This recommendation for approval has gravely concerned Directors and Trustees of Historic Royal Palaces, who believe the planning application should be determined at a national, not local, level. The development is now likely to be approved next week by the Council’s full planning committee (on 11 November 2008).

John Barnes, Conservation and Learning Director at Historic Royal Palaces said, “We have tried for years to get a more sensitive approach adopted that would work with, rather than against, the historic setting of the palace and create a better environment for local people, but without success. Now that Elmbridge Borough Council looks set to give this damaging development the go-ahead we have appealed to the Secretary of State as a last resort. Of course, we also want to see an end to the eyesore around Hampton Court Station caused by years of neglect, but the solution is not the scheme being proposed. This is more than a local matter and should now be decided in the broader arena of a public inquiry.”

Historic Royal Palaces’ strong objections to the proposed development were set out in a letter of representation dated 7 December 2007 to Elmbridge Borough Council. These objections were reiterated in the organisation’s response to a second application dated 18 August 2008.   The fundamental objections and concerns over the two (almost identical) schemes for which planning permission is being sought are:
• The detrimental visual impact* the whole proposed development would have on the setting of Hampton Court Palace, its gardens and park, which together form an historic ensemble of outstanding national and European importance, and on key views from and to the palace. Particularly deplorable is the overall density and scale of development on the site, which the developers claim is necessary to make the scheme financially viable, an argument that we question.
• The bulk and height of the proposed hotel and its proximity to the River Thames and to the palace would be particularly damaging and the development does not comply with relevant polices.
• The experiential impact on visitors to the palace and the local area arriving at the train station who will be denied sight of the palace across the river.
• Concerns that the development will have a detrimental impact on wider matters, such as flooding and highways and transport.
• The second application is almost the same as the original, aside from:
o The architects have ‘enveloped’ the hotel with Georgian-style elevations but this does not make the bulky and dominant building more acceptable visually, or more sympathetic to its historic context.  In fact it appears of greater mass and unrelieved bulk than the original ‘boathouse’ proposal and its dominance and physical proximity would diminish the importance of the palace itself.
o Minor amendments to the riverside landscaping but nonetheless the hard urban nature of a paved ‘public space’ between the hotel and the river’s edge remains inappropriate. 

In its letter to GOSE and the Secretary of State, Historic Royal Palaces argue that as the proposed application raises issues of more than local importance and have implications that go beyond the borough of Elmbridge, it should not be decided solely by the local planning authority. Key considerations that Historic Royal Palaces believe should take the planning decision out of local council’s hands are:
• Hampton Court Palace, its gardens and estate are of national and European significance – any development that has a detrimental impact on the setting of this outstanding ensemble (which has been designated as the Hampton Court Park Conservation Area by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames) is of more than local importance.
• The development site is located next to the River Thames within the wider Thames Policy Area, the Thames Landscape Strategy Area, and the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Network area.  It also falls within the South East Plan area.  The development does not, in Historic Royal Palaces’ view, comply with the policies for the river corridor in these documents, and its impact clearly will have a more than local effect.
• Objections to the proposals have been received from beyond Elmbridge Borough, including from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, the Thames Landscape Strategy, the London Parks and Gardens Trust, and Tony Arbour JP, Assemblyman for the South West Constituency.