Kitchens – Feature Fridays

February 04 2022 | Castle History

The theme of this #featurefridays with Historic Houses is kitchens.

The Inner Hall was the Great Kitchen in the Tudor period preparing thousands of meals for the Boleyn family.

Thomas Boleyn installed high ceilings due to the immense heat from the two kitchen fireplaces which took up the entire wall of the room.

By the 1860’s the north wall of the kitchen was dangerously unstable due to the large Tudor chimney stacks added in the 16th century; and by sometime in the 1880’s the wall had come down destroying the original fireplaces.

The kitchen was temporarily moved to the Great Hall.

Visitors to the Inner Hall today can admire the Italian walnut panelling and columns which were designed in 1905 by the sculptor William Silver Frith as part of William Waldorf Astor’s restoration of Hever Castle.

The gallery above the hall was inspired by the rood screen at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The ceiling is in the Elizabethan style and incorporates the Tudor rose emblem.