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Should I avoid Hampton Court Palace during the Flower Show?

Posted by (Frankfurt, Germany) on

Hello,

We are taking a cruise in and out of Dover in July. We have booked our flights to allow 2 nights on the front end and 3 nights on the back end for hanging out in and around London. We have been to London twice for one week each so we have hit most of the highlights, but never made it out to HCP. I planned to stay the 2 nights on the front end in Richmond or Kingston to save a little on lodging and see some of the sights in that area while enjoying a relaxed pace. We will mostly be finding green space for the kids to run around and enjoy acting like locals out for the day, and that seems like a great area to do that in.

This plan has been been thrown a curveball though with my recent discovery that the HCP Flower Show is taking place during these dates. The website is plastered with Viking Cruise sponsorship, and the Kingston town website offers a warning about crowds and traffic during those dates, so my assumption is that this is a major event that will draw large crowds.

While I am sure the show is very nice with many beautiful exhibits, if the primary reason for my visit is to see HCP for the first time, should I be planning to see HCP on the back end of the cruise, when the festival is over? Will the festival be taking away parts of the park/gardens that are normally nice areas to wander around HCP? Obviously July is peak season, but will the crowds be even worse at that time, as opposed to the last week of July? I am worried that it will take away from my enjoyment of HCP which has been a major bucket list item for me for a long time.

Your expertise and advice is much appreciated!

-Ryan

Posted by
1015 posts

The flower show is huge - I think it's second only to Chelsea. While I haven't been to Hampton Court while it's on, I think it would significantly impact on a visit just to the Palace. Crowds everywhere.

I'd aim to visit the Palace at another time. It's such a joy when it's comparatively quiet (my last visit was on a weekday morning in late April and it was glorious).

Posted by
231 posts

I have been to HCP during the flower show. I didn't realise until I got there that the show was on. I've been on non show days as well, and don't think there was much difference to the numbers inside the Palace. If people are coming for the flower show, they're staying outside in the ticketed show area and don't seem to be popping into the separately ticketed Palace.

Where I did feel the impact of the crowds was on the train home. Hampton Court train staff had set up s queueing system and then it was a mad dash for seats when the train came in. It's not normally like that at all, but if you're staying in Kingston then at least you're close by.

Posted by
3958 posts

We've been to HCP twice. The first visit was on a Saturday in July when we knew they had a special event going on-- The Marriage Party Arrival of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. They arrived by old boat on the Thames and then had wedding feast celebrations in the gardens. There were special demonstrations by many costumed participants that day. We debated about not going, after all it had three things going against it; summer, weekend and grand special event. We had our 8 year old granddaughter with us and we thought we wouldn't enjoy the day if it was really crowded. We'd had a horribly crowded experience at the Tower of London a few days before. Long story short, it was wonderful. The palace was never crowded. The grounds are so spacious and well layed out. We never stood in line for anything and an 8 year old could get herself to the front of demonstrations to see everything.

I don't know how this special event compares to the flower show but if the displays are spread amongst the grounds rather than in the palace and courtyards themselves, I think I'd risk it for the experience and colorful backdrop. I'm glad we went on what we thought would be a crowded day.

We went back to HCP 2 years ago with the same granddaughter and her younger sister. It seemed just about as uncrowded, just right for the wonderful space.

Posted by
2189 posts

We hit there last July on the Sunday of the flower show. The only place it impacted us was at the train station- wait to use the WC until you get to the palace. Otherwise crowds did not seem to impact the palace or the grounds. Neither the grounds nor the maze seemed to be unduly impacted, nor did we have any trouble with crowds in the palace. They are two separate admissions and I think it was something like 30£ to get into the flower show, so people don't necessarily do both. It was fun to see what people at the flower show were buying.

Posted by
6 posts

Thank you all for the input. I really appreciate it!

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