The King's House in
Winchester was a late 17th-century planned royal
palace in the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
county of
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
. Winchester had been the capital of
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in
Anglo-Saxon times, but became a backwater after the
Norman Conquest of England.
Built for King
Charles II of England by Sir
Christopher Wren from 1683 to 1685, the King's House stood on a site adjoining the
castle it was to replace, and modelled after the
Palace of Versailles, though on a somewhat smaller scale. It was to have sweeping views, walks and gardens descending to the
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...
. Although it was structurally completed, the money to complete it ran out and the project was eventually abandoned after the death of Charles II in February 1685. Wren had cheerfully assured the King that the house would be complete in a year, to which Charles, who was feeling his age, made his famous reply that "a year is a great time in my life". The building was gutted by fire in 1894 and demolished.
[Fraser p.432]
Columns and parts of the decorative masonry were reused in the
Peninsula Barracks
The Peninsula Barracks are a group of military buildings in Winchester, Hampshire.
History
The barracks, which were originally known as the Upper Barracks, Winchester, were built in the early 20th century on the site of King's House, an unfini ...
building which replaced it in 1900, and which now include
Winchester's Military Museums
Winchester's Military Museums are a group of six independent and related regimental museums in Peninsula Barracks and Lower Barracks in Winchester, Hampshire.
The museums are:
* HorsePower: The Museum of the King's Royal Hussars
* Royal Hampsh ...
.
References
{{Royal palaces in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures completed in 1683
Houses completed in the 17th century
Christopher Wren buildings
Country houses in Hampshire
History of Winchester
Palaces in England
Royal residences in England
1683 establishments in England