Nonsuch Palace

Nonsuch Palace was a grand Tudor royal residence built by Henry VIII in what is now Nonsuch Park, on the border between Epsom and Ewell and the London Borough of Sutton. It stood on land once occupied by the village and church of Cuddington, which were demolished to make way for the palace. Construction began in 1538, the same year as the birth of Henry’s son Edward VI, and the name ‘Nonsuch’ was chosen to signal that no other palace could match its magnificence. The design aimed to rival Francis I’s Château de Chambord in France, blending medieval and Renaissance styles. Work progressed quickly, with substantial completion by 1541, though full ornamentation took years more. The palace played a key role in royal history. After Henry’s death in 1547, Queen Mary I invited the French ambassador to hunt in the park. In 1556, it was sold to the 19th Earl of Arundel, who finished the building by 1559. Elizabeth I signed the Treaty of Nonsuch here in 1585, and later returned it to the Crown. James I granted it to his queen, Anne of Denmark, and their children stayed there briefly. The palace became a favoured hunting lodge for James I and Charles I, who enjoyed the Great Park’s deer and racing. Though the palace was demolished in the 1680s, traces remain. Archaeologists uncovered the layout of two courtyards, each with a fortified gatehouse, and found ornate stucco panels in the inner courtyard. John Evelyn admired the Italianate plasterwork and slate-covered timber, noting how it preserved the structure. Some fragments survive in nearby Loseley Park, and two earthworks mark the old gatehouses. The site today is a quiet park, but the memory of its Renaissance splendor endures in scattered relics and the broad avenues of elms that once lined its approach.