Lambeth Palace - History

History

The south bank of the Thames, not part of historic London, developed slowly because the land was low and sodden: it was called Lambeth Marsh, as far downriver as the present Blackfriars Road. The name "Lambeth" embodies "hithe", a landing on the river: archbishops came and went by water, as did John Wycliff, who was tried here for heresy. In the English peasants' revolt of 1381 the Palace was attacked.

The oldest remaining part of the palace is the Early English chapel. The so-called Lollard’s Tower, which retains evidence of its use as a prison in the 17th century, dates from 1440. There is a fine Tudor brick gatehouse built by Cardinal John Morton in 1495. Cardinal Pole lay in state in the palace for 40 days after he died there in 1558. The fig tree in the palace courtyard is possibly grown from a slip taken from one of the White Marseille figs reputedly planted by Cardinal Pole. In 1786 there were three ancient figs, two "nailed against the wall" and still noted in 1826 as "two uncommonly fine... traditionally reported to have been planted by Cardinal Pole, and fixed against that part of the palace believed to have been founded by him. They are of the white Marseilles sort, and still bear delicious fruit. ...On the south side of the building, in a small private garden, is another tree of the same kind and age." By 1882 their place had been taken by several massive offshoots.

The Great Hall was ransacked by Cromwellian troops during the English Civil War, and after the Restoration, it was rebuilt by archbishop William Juxon in 1663 (dated) with a late Gothic hammerbeam roof, the likes of which had not been constructed for a hundred years. In this context, the choice of a hammerbeam roof was evocative; it spoke of High-Church Anglican continuity with the Old Faith (the King's brother was an avowed Catholic), a visual statement that the Interregnum was over. As with some Gothic details on University buildings of the same date, it is debated among architectural historians whether this is Gothic survival or an extraordinary early work of the Gothic Revival. The diarist Samuel Pepys recognized it for what it was: "a new old-fashioned hall" he called it. Among the portraits of the archbishops now housed in the Palace are examples by Hans Holbein, Anthony van Dyck, William Hogarth and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

New construction was added to the building in 1834 by Edward Blore (1787–1879), who rebuilt much of Buckingham Palace later. Here his work is neo-Gothic enough to have satisfied Sir Walter Scott, and it fronts a spacious quadrangle. It is these buildings which are now inhabited by the archbishop.

• Map of 1897, showing Lambeth Palace, Lambeth Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge

• The Guard Room

• The great hall with Cardinal Pole's fig tree in front

• Lambeth Palace from the south circa 1685.