Association of European Royal Residences
As members of the Association of European Royal Residences, we work with other historic palaces across Europe on research, conservation and communication.
Run from the palace of Versailles, the association has in the past received generous funding from the European Community. We have achieved a lot together, from an international conference on baroque gardens to a European-wide statement on conservation philosophy and a website comparing the lives of kings and queens across Europe called ‘Days of Royalty’.
We are currently working on an application to the European Union’s funding programme ‘Culture 2008’, seeking funding for a variety of projects involving an international exchange scheme for staff, preventive conservation, historic court dress and major projects in historic buildings.
Kingston University
We work closely with Kingston University just down the road from Hampton Court Palace. Current and recent partnership projects include:
- Hampton Court Palace hosts the university’s annual Tudor and Stuart Symposium.
- Chief Curator Lucy Worsley is Visiting Professor with the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture.
- Working with the School of Humanities, we’ve received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to provide research for the 2009 Henry VIII exhibition at Hampton Court.
- We have funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a collaborative PhD studentship with the School of Art and Design History. Our student, Julia Parker says:
‘I’m currently 3 months into a 3 year PhD project looking at the 19th and 20th-century histories of Hampton Court Palace. The official project title is Reinventions: Hampton Court Palace and its Publics, 1838-1992.
Using this as a framework, I hope to chart the development of the site as a tourist attraction and determine how it has reached its current position. At the moment, I’m focussing on the personalities that managed the site during the 19th century, including the surveyor and dog-enthusiast, Edward Jesse, and the would-be chief curator, Ernest Law.’
