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[[Category:Royal residences]]
[[Category:Royal residences]]
Newmarket Palace was a Royal Palace that is now the location of the National Horseracing Museum[1]
James I first visited Newmarket in February 1605, describing it as a “poor little village”. From 1606 to 1610, he built the palace on an estate covering 1 acre (4,000 square metres) of land from the High Street to All Saints’ churchyard, establishing the town as a royal resort and a horseracing town. The first palace building suffered from subsidence and sank on one side when King James was in residence in March 1613.[2] Simon Basil, and later, Inigo Jones, were commissioned to build new lodgings for the King and the Prince of Wales. Jones’s design had three storeys and was Italianate in style.[3]
The Palace Street premises occupy the site of the Newmarket palace and stables of Charles II. Only Palace House remains of the original palace, the rest having been demolished after Queen Victoria sold the property to Mayer Amschel de Rothschild in 1857. The stables of Charles II on the opposite side of Palace Street were also demolished to make way for the Trainer’s House and new stables called the King’s Yard Stables.
Between 1666 and 1685, Charles II often visited Newmarket. In 1668, he commissioned William Samwell to build a new palace on the High Street (on the site of the present United Reformed Church). However, in 1670, John Evelyn said that the palace was “meane enough, and hardly capable for a hunting house, let alone a royal palace!” In October 1677.
In 1791 the George IV, then Prince of Wales was involved in a betting scandal[4][5][6] meaning that the prince foreswore racing,[7] sold his stable and never returned to Newmarket.[5][8] At the start of the 19th century, the palace was largely demolished, but a section survives and is now named Palace House.[1]
References
- ^ a b “Oliver Cromwell – Cromwell Britain – Newmarket”. www.olivercromwell.org.
- ^ Elizabeth McClure Thomson, The Chamberlain Letters (London, 1966), p. 126.
- ^ Thurley, Simon (2021). Palaces of the Revolution, Life, Death & Art at the Stuart Court. Collins. pp. 42–46.
- ^ Mortimer, Roger; Onslow, Richard; Willett, Peter (1978). Biographical Encyclopedia of British Flat Racing. Macdonald and Jane’s. ISBN 978-0-354-08536-6.
- ^ a b George, Mary Dorothy (1935). Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. British Museum.
- ^ “History of Flat Racing – QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame”. Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ “Escape”. Bloodlines.net. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ Setterfield, Ray. “Prince of Wales Gallops Out of Horseracing After Scandal”. On This Day. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
