Richmond Palace

Richmond Palace was a royal residence on the right (south, or Surrey) bank of the River Thames, upstream of the Palace of Westminster, to which it lay 9 miles (14 km) SW of as the crow flies. It was erected c. 1501 within the royal manor of Sheen, by Henry VII of England, formerly known by his title Earl of Richmond, after which it was named. It was occupied by royalty until 1649.

It replaced a former palace, itself built on the site of a manor house that had been appropriated by the Crown some two centuries beforehand, which had been in royal possession for most of that time.

In 1500, immediately preceding the construction of the new "Richmond" Palace the following year, the town of Sheen which had grown up around the royal manor changed its name to "Richmond", by command of Henry VII. The two separate nomenclatures of Sheen and Richmond continue to this day, not without scope for confusion, since today's districts called "East Sheen" and "North Sheen", now under the administrative control of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, were never in ancient times within Sheen manor, but were rather carved out of what was formerly the ancient adjoining manor of Mortlake, in recent times. Richmond remained part of the County of Surrey until the mid-1960s, when it was absorbed by the expansion of London.

Of Richmond Palace today only vestigial traces remain, most notably the gatehouse. The site occupies the area between Richmond Green and the River Thames, the street names of which provide evidence of the former existence of the Palace, namely Old Palace Lane, Old Palace Yard and The Wardrobe.