Writer
Fundamental to my interests is researching and writing about English history and its buildings. My very first foray into this area was stimulated by a wonderful medieval castle redesigned by Sir John Vanbrugh. I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on Kimbolton Castle, something that was later published by Country Life. Since then I have written some dozen books and more than a score of academic papers and articles.
My central area of interest is the interaction of people and places. Many of my books have been specifically about royal and government buildings and how they relate to the exercise of power. In 2014 I published a new history of English Architecture, The Building of England, that won the Forbes Heritage book of the year prize.
In 2018 I launched my new website RoyalPalaces.com. I did this because there continues to be a huge interest in royal palaces and a lack of a single place where you can find out what was, once, a royal residence. The new website which will eventually cover nearly 100 buildings sets out to provide a free service to anyone interested in royal houses.
Books
I have written thirteen single authored books and dozens of academic articles and many other pieces. The most important books I have written so far are:
Palaces of Revolution: Life, Death and Art at the Stuart Court
Winner of the 2023 Samuel Pepys Prize
Palaces of Revolution traces the extraordinary Stuart period across the places and palaces on which the action played out, giving us a thrilling new history of this remarkable dynasty.
Life in the court of the House of Stuart has been shrouded in mystery: the first half of the century overshadowed by the fall and execution of Charles I, the second half in the complete collapse of the House itself. Lost to time is the extraordinary contribution the Stuarts made to the fabric of sovereignty.
Every palace they built, painting they commissioned, or artwork they acquired was a direct reflection of the lives that they led and the way that they thought. Palaces of Revolution explores this rich history in graphic detail, giving a unique insight into the lives of this famous dynasty. It takes us from Royston and Newmarket, where James I appropriated most of the town centre as a sort of rough-and-ready royal housing estate, to the steamy Turkish baths at Whitehall where Charles II seduced his mistresses. We see the intimate private lives of the monarchs, presented through the buildings in which they lived and the objects they commissioned, creating an entirely new narrative of the Stuart century.
“an important addition to knowledge not merely for historians of art and architecture but for all people interested in the Stuart period in general… a splendid achievement, which serves several different branches of history at once, as well as those who appreciate a clear and lively literary style.” – Professor Ronald Hutton, Times Literary Supplement
“A Hugely impressive, readable book… a huge accomplishment” – John Goodall, Country Life
“Admirably readable… lively and authoritative… Simon Thurley probably knows more about palaces of the 16th and 17th century than anyone alive” – Andrew Taylor, The Times
Houses of Power: The places that shaped the Tudor world
Houses of Power tells the architectural history of the Tudor monarchy. It brings together thirty years of writing, research, thinking and digging into the architecture and social life of the Tudor court. It turns a mass of my periodical literature and several of my previous books about royal houses into a completely fresh story about the Tudor court and its buildings.
John Guy in the Literary Review calls it ‘a riveting account’; Christopher Howse in the Saturday Telegraph, ‘Immensely informative’, Dan Jones in the Mail on Sunday ‘Fresh, learned, readable and full of life’, while the Saturday times calls its beautiful design ‘suitably opulent’ and says my ‘enthusiasm steadily bubbles forth from Houses of Power’.
St James’s Palace: From Leper Hospital to Royal Court
Published in 2022 this is the first history of St. James’s Palace for a century. Commissioned by the Royal Collection Trust it is a companion volume to their history of Winsor Castle to which I was a major contributor. It takes a chronological approach, like my book on Hampton Court and tells the extraordinary story of how St James’s House, built by Henry VIII as a residence for his son, by accident, became, after 1714, the principal royal residence of the British monarchy. My colleagues Rufus Bird and Mike Turner contributed chapters on the Georgian and Victorian courts. The Royal Collection commissioned some spectacular reconstruction drawings which bring the seventeenth century palace alive.
Adrian Tinniswood in the Sunday Telegraph says the story is told with ‘Scholarship and Flair’
The Building of England. How the History of England has shaped our buildings (William Collins, 2013)
Winner of the Spears History book of the year 2014
Published in November 2013 this is my history of architecture in England, the labour of four years of Sunday afternoons, snatched moments amidst the children’s suppertime and some chunks of annual holiday. It is a history of English buildings; but, it is intended to be more than that: it is about the beliefs, ideas and aspirations of the people who commissioned them, built them, lived in them and saw them going about their daily business. It is about how people discovered new ways of building, both for improved structural performance, and for enhanced aesthetic effect. It is about how buildings reflected changing economic circumstances, shifting tastes and fashions. It is about the architectural expression of power, of hierarchy, of influence. It is the history of a nation through what it built.
Brilliantly produced by my excellent publisher William Collins it has over 540 illustrations with lots of plans and diagrams. Though it has no bibliography it does have good and full notes which should help people follow up their interests. Andrew Wilson writing in the Evening Standard called it ‘a truly stupendous achievement’ and called me ‘one of the best architectural historians this country has ever produced’, a bit over the top, but kind, nevertheless.
Men from the Ministry. How Britain Saved its Heritage (Yale, 2013)
This is a book on a rather obscure but fascinating subject. It tells the tale of how a very small government department, the Ancient Monuments Department of the Office of Works set out, armed with the 1913 Ancient Monuments Act, to save the nation’s heritage. Its work, which came to an end in 1983 with the establishment of English Heritage, was responsible for giving us one of the best publically-owned collections of great buildings in the world and a heritage protection system that is the envy of many. The story comes alive through the extraordinary people who were involved in this endeavour. I have been really surprised and flattered as to how well it has done; people have found the story really fascinating and compelling…
‘Simon Thurley’s engrossing book… A canny operator as well as a first class architectural historian’: Richard Morrison – Saturday Times Book of the Week
‘Thurley knows his subject intimately; his account is stuffed with interesting, useful facts and with vignettes of bygone personalities, Gillian Tindall’: Literary review
‘Though Thurley’s parade of bureaucrats can be wearying at times, the end result is magnificent. English Heritage has been an easy (and constant) target for government cuts and this book is, in a way, a defence of its raison d’etre’: Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times
‘Sharp provoking book’: Michael Hall, Country Life
‘A well overdue celebration of a great national achievement’, Jada Dams, Who do you think you are?
‘Engaging and candid account’, Current Archaeology
‘Entertaining and informative narrative, rich with insights’, British Archaeology
Hampton Court Palace: A Social and Architectural History, (Yale, 2004).
Mark Girouard’s comment in the TLS quoted above referred to the fact that it was known that my next project was writing up over fifteen years of research on Hampton Court. The start of this had been my MA dissertation. The book set out deliberately to meld together architecture and social life as I had done in my first book but to apply the methodology to a single building. It was a big and detailed book Bill Bryson, choosing it as one of his books of the year in 2004 said it was ‘That rarest of things a coffee table book that is also a supremely engaging read… The only downside is that if you fall asleep reading it in bed, you could be crushed’.
I had a lot of help in writing this and in the Whitehall book from the team that had written The History of the King’s Works – a definitive history of royal building edited by Sir Howard Colvin. I sent a copy of the book to Howard when it was finished and his reply is now glued into the front of my own copy. His letter called Hampton Court ‘Probably the best book ever written on a single building’. This is the biggest compliment I have ever had (apart from Anna marrying me). Other people said:
‘Everyone should be eternally grateful to him for providing us with surely one of the best building biographies ever written’, Roy Strong, The Evening Standard
Beautifully illustrated and well written Simon Pepper TLS
Thurley’s book has manifold strengths… Huge and impressive detail Jamie Camplin Times Higher Education Supplement
Unlikely to be superseded, Giles Worsley, The Daily Telegraph
The Triumph of Simon Thurley’s Stupendous new work of scholarship is to show how much more there is to know than ever one could have imagined. Clive Aslet, Country Life
Whitehall Palace. An Architectural History of the Royal Apartments, 1240-1690, (Yale University Press, 1999)
My second big book for Yale University Press was an entirely different thing. Whitehall had been excavated in the 1930s and 1950s and none of the excavators had ever written up their finds. I took on the task of doing the job for them. It was an exercise in the archaeology of archaeology, piecing together documentary evidence, the archaeological records and other sources to reconstruct the residential parts of Whitehall palace. It was a big and difficult job and one that is unlikely that anyone will try again – not least as I had access to the surviving excavators – all now dead. H. M. Port, who taught me as an undergraduate and who had worked on the material said in the London Journal that the book’s ‘…scrupulous research’ made it now ‘…the fundamental source for further studies relating to the English Court and government’. Very kind.
‘Architectural history that continually interrelates form and function, using the full range of archaeological, architectural and historical evidence to present the reader with an understanding of the experience of living in the royal buildings’, Felicity Heal, Times Higher
Thurley’s magisterial sequence… I can recollect no better presentation of plans in any recent architectural book… If only other palaces might receive the same exemplary Thurley treatment’ John Harris, The Art newspaper
‘This is a great achievement and a model of the careful scholarship that currently goes into the reconstruction of lost buildings’ Maurice Howard Burlington Magazine
Whitehall Palace marks the second instalment of Simon Thurley’s triumphant celebration of the Tudor and Stuart Royal palace… it is a measure of his knowledge, skill and enthusiasm that he can keep the readers attention and interest (with perhaps a little skipping of how foundation M19 relates to wall M20)’ Mark Girouard, The Times Literary Supplement
The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: A Social and Architectural History, (Yale University Press, 1993)
This was the ‘fastest selling art book of 1993’ according to the Apollo Magazine and was shortlisted for the Longman History Today book awards. The reviews were very good apart from my former PhD supervisor and friend David Starkey who wrote, in the Literary Review, that the book ‘bears more than a passing resemblance to its overblown subject, where lavishness is all…Henry’s palaces were put up in a rush and on inadequate foundations. So is Thurley’s book’. The footnotes were described as ‘a septic tank of errors’. I do love David. He was, however, forced to admit ‘the achievements of both the king and the architectural historian [i.e. me] are formidable in gross if flawed in detail’. This is what other people had to say:
‘not only a definitive history of the royal palaces’ architecture and decoration but, crucially of their function as well’: Roy Strong, Country Life
…this admirable, beautiful book – learned but readable’ A. L. Rowse, The Evening Standard
Thurley’s is a new kind of book on English palaces, much needed and brilliantly executed’: Mark Girouard, Times Literary Supplement
Simon Thurley’s superb and engrossing study’: Antonia Fraser, The Times
‘…an original and exceptionally interesting book’, Claude Blair: The Art Newspaper
Current bibliography
Single Author Books
The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: A Social and Architectural History, (Yale University Press, 1993).
The Lost Palace of Whitehall, (Royal Institute of British Architects, 1998, reprinted 1999).
The Whitehall Palace Plan of 1670, (London Topographical Society Publication, 153, 1998).
Whitehall Palace, an Architectural History of the Royal Apartments 1240-1690, (Yale University Press, 1999).
Hampton Court Palace: A Social and Architectural History, (Yale University Press, 2004).
Lost Buildings of Britain, (Penguin, 2004)
Whitehall Palace, the Official Illustrated History, (Historic Royal Palaces, 2008)
Somerset House, The Palace of England’s Queens 1551-1692, (London Topographical Society Publication 168, 2009)
Director’s Choice. English Heritage, (London, 2012)
Men from the Ministry. How Britain Saved its Heritage (Yale University Press, 2013)
The Building of England. How the History of England has shaped our buildings (William Collins, 2013)
Houses of Power, The Places that Shaped the Tudor World (Bantam Press 2017)
Palaces of Revolution: The Places that Shaped the Stuart World (William Collins, 2021)
Edited and joint books
Henry VIII, Images of a Tudor King, (Oxford, 1990, reprinted 1995 with corrections) (With Christopher Lloyd).
The King’s Privy Garden at Hampton Court Palace, 1689-1995, Ed., (Apollo, 1995).
Oatlands Palace (with Alan Cook and Rob Poulton) (Woking, 2009)
St. James’s Palace. From Leper Hospital to Royal Court, Ed., (Royal Collection Trust, 2022).
Articles in Refereed Academic Journals
‘Henry VIII and the Building of Hampton Court: A Reconstruction of the Tudor Palace’, Architectural History, 31, (1998), pp.1-57.
‘Excavations on the West Side of Whitehall 1960-2 Part I: From the Building of the Tudor Palace to the Construction of the Modern Offices of State’, The London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Transactions, (1990), pp.59-130.
‘The Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, CXLIII, (1990), pp.1-28.
‘Whitehall Palace and King Street, Westminster: The Urban Cost of Princely Magnificence’, London Topographical Record, XXVI, (1990), pp.57-77, (with Gervaise Rosser).
‘The Building of the King’s Apartments, A most Popular Monarch’, Apollo, CXL, (1994), No. 390, pp. 10-21.
‘William III’s Privy Garden at Hampton Court Palace: Research and Restoration’, Apollo, (June, 1995), pp.3-22.
‘The Royal Lodgings at the Tower of London 1240-1320’, Architectural History, 38, (1995), pp 36-37.
‘The Stuart Kings, Oliver Cromwell and the Chapel Royal 1618-1685’, Architectural History, 45, (2002), pp.238-274.
‘Architecture and Diplomacy; Greenwich Palace under the Stuarts’, The Court Historian 11.2 (January 2007) pp.21-29.
‘Kensington Palace: an incident in Anglo-Dutch architectural collaboration?’ The Georgian Group Journal (XVII) 2009, pp.1-18.
‘The Cloister and the Hearth, Thomas Wolsey and the plan of the late Medieval Episcopal Mansion’ Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 162, (2009), pp.179-195)
Contributions to multi-author books of Essays
‘The Domestic Building Works of Cardinal Wolsey’, Cardinal Wolsey: Church, State and Art, Eds., S. Gunn & P. Lindley, (Cambridge, 1990), pp.76-102.
‘Greenwich Palace: The Banqueting House of 1527, The Sport of Kings’, in Henry VIII, A European Court in England, Ed., D. Starkey, (National Maritime Museum, Exhibition Catalogue, 1991), pp.20-26, 64-70, 163-172.
‘Tudor and Jacobean’, The Elements of Style ed., Stephen Calloway, (Mitchell Beazley, 1991, second edition with revisions, 1996), pp.12-39.
‘The Palaces of Henry VIII’, Architecture et Vie Sociale à La Renaissance, L’organisation Intérieure des Grandes Demeures à la Fin du Moyen Age et à la Renaissance, Ed., J. Guillaume, (Picard), (1994), pp.97-106.
‘Hampton Court Palace’, Macmillan Dictionary of Art (1995)
‘The Restoration of Hampton Court’, in Das Schloss und Seind Ausstattung (Icomos, 1995), pp.67-71.
‘Palace Revolution: Ideas for Reversing Decline in England’s Royal Palaces’, Abitare La Storia, le Dimore Storiche Museo, ed., Luca Leoncini and Farida Simonetti, (Genoa, 1997), pp.89-94
‘Whitehall Palace and Westminster 1400-1600: A Royal Seat in Transition’, Eds., David Gaimster & Paul Stamper, The Age of Transition (Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 98, 1997), pp.93-104.
‘A Country House fit for a King Charles II, Winchester and Greenwich’, The Stuart Court, (2000), Ed., E.Cruickshanks pp.214-239.
‘Royal Palaces’, Tudor England an Encyclopaedia, Ed., Arthur F. Kinney and David W. Swain, (New York 2001), pp. 613-615.
‘The Impact of Royal Landholdings on the County of Surrey 1509-1649’, Aspects of Archaeology and History in Surrey: Towards a Research Framework for the County, (Surrey Archaeological Society, 2004), pp.155-168.
The Cardinal of King Henry VIII of England. Thomas Wolsey. Frédérique Lemerle, Yves Pauwels and Gennaro Toscano, Les Cardinaux de la Renaissance, (Tours, 2009), pp.39-50
‘The Politics of Court Space in Early Stuart London’, George Gorst and Malcolm Smutts eds., The Politics of Court Space in Europe and the Mediterranean, ca. 1500-1750, (2009), pp.293-316
‘The changing perception of cultural heritage: new approach and new challenges’, Cultural Heritage. A resource for Europe. The benefits of interaction. Ed., Guy Braeckman, (Brussels, 2011), pp.43-51
‘The historiography of the architecture of European courts’, Marcello Fantoni ed., The Court in Europe, (Rome, 2012), pp.291-301
‘The Vanishing Architecture of the River Thames’, S. Doran, ed., Royal River. Power Pageantry and the Thames, (London, 2012), pp. 20-25
‘Lauderdale at Court’, Christopher Rowell ed., Ham House. 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, (Yale, 2013), pp.136-143
‘Monumental History: The History of the King’s Works History of the King’s Works’ Malcolm Airs and William Whyte Ed., Architectural History after Colvin (Donington, 2013), pp.94-101.
‘The King in the Queen’s Lodgings: The rise of the Drawing Room at the English Court’. M. Chatenet, ed., Le prince, la Princesse et leurs Logis, (Paris, 2016).
‘The Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII’, ‘Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts’, ‘The Baroque Castle 1660-1685’, ‘The Later Stuarts’, in Steven Brindle ed., Windsor Castle: A Thousand Years of a Royal Palace, (London, 2018), pp.146-157, 180-1293, 216-249.
‘Dynastic Symbolism in the English Royal Residence’, Kurt Almquist and Susanna Hakelius Popova, Royal Castles and Palaces. Symbolic Values in Modern Times, (Stockholm, 2018), pp. 11-31.
‘Introduction’, ‘From the Hospital of St. James to the Civil War’, ‘The Restoration to Queen Anne’, ‘The Palace Today’, in Simon Thurley ed., St. James’s Palace. From Leper Hospital to Royal Court (Royal Collection Trust, 2022).
‘The Court on the Move: Problems and Perspectives’, Anthony Musson and J. P. D. Cooper eds., Royal Journeys in Early Modern Europe. Progresses, Palaces and Panache, (London, 2023), pp.11-20
‘The Later Stuart Monarchs in England’, Clive Aslet and Frank Salmon eds., Royalty and Architecture. Visions and Ambitions of European Monarchs and Nobility, (Stockholm, 2023), pp.57-70
‘Royal Ambition and the Stuart Office of Works 1604-49’, José Eloy Hortal Munoz and Merlijn Hurx eds., Building in the Presence of the Prince, (Turnhout, Belgium, 2025), pp.272-285
Other Articles
‘Palaces for a Tudor King’, Country Life, (October 1991), pp.86-89.
‘Palaces for a Nouveau Riche King’, History Today, (June 1991), pp.10-14.
‘All the King’s Houses’, Country Life, (October 10th 1991), pp.86-89.
‘Hampton Court Middlesex. The Palace in the Nineteenth Century’, Country Life, (June 1st 1995), pp.80-85.
‘William III’s Privy Garden at Hampton Court: Points of Entry’, History Today, Vol. 47(5), (May 1997), pp.62-3.
‘Magnificent Chaos, London’s Lost Palace’, Country Life, (February 5th 1998), pp.42-5.
‘The Lost Palace of Whitehall’, History Today, (January 1998), pp.47-53.
‘How London Learned to Eat Out’, Country Life, (November 18th 1999), pp.72-73.
‘London’s Hidden Depths, 160 Years of Archaeology in London’, Illustrated London News, (December 1999), pp.40-42.
‘Digging to Londinuim’, Country Life, (November 2nd, 2000), pp. 124-127
‘Roman Holidays’, History Today, (December 2000), pp. 62-63
‘The Art of Hugh Buchanan’ Francis Kyle Gallery, (November 2000)
Crosby Hall Chelsea, Country Life, (October 2nd 2003) pp.72-6
The Early Stuarts at Hampton Court, History Today (November, 2003) pp.14-20
Nearly our Greatest Palace, (Winchester Palace) Country Life, (March 3rd 2005), pp. 92-5
Nonsuch: A Palace fit for a Prince? Country Life, (August 11, 2005), pp.42-5
The True Story of the Royal Maze, Country Life, (September 15, 2005), pp.148-9
Kimbolton Castle, Country Life (March 30, 2006), pp.66-71
Newmarket Palace, Country Life (April 24 2008), pp.100-103.
Somerset House, Country Life (2008)
The Thrill of the Chase. Oatlands Palace, Surrey, Country Life (January 19 2011), pp.50-53
Scotland’s Royal Palace, Holyroodhouse, Country Life, (August 15th 2012), pp. 69-73
Elizabeth I and Windsor, Country Life, (May 17, 2017), pp.88-93
Turning a Town into A Palace, Country Life, (August 14, 2019), pp.48-53
A Shrine to Shakespeare. Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Country Life, (October 6, 2021) pp.102-106.
A nursery palace, St. James’s Palace, An official residence of his Majesty King Charles III, Country Life (November 8th 2023), pp.68-79
Guidebooks
The Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court, a Souvenir Guide, (Historic Royal Palaces, 1991).
The King’s Apartments, A Souvenir Guide, (Historic Royal Palaces, 1992).
Hampton Court Palace, Official Guidebook, (Historic Royal Palaces, 1992, reprinted 1993 and 1994. Entirely new edition, 1996).
The Crown Jewels, Official Guidebook, (HM Tower of London, 1994), (revised and expanded edition).
Kew Palace, Official Guidebook, (Historic Royal Palaces, 1995), (With Suzanne Groom).
The Banqueting House, Official Guidebook, (Historic Royal Palaces, 1997), (With Suzanne Groom and Susan Jenkins).
The Spitalfields Roman, (Museum of London, 1999).
‘From Rags to Riches’, The Book of London Walks II, (Time Out, 2001, reprinted April 2005), pp. 284-295.
Kirby Hall, English Heritage, (2020)
Selected Book Reviews
‘The Palaces of Medieval England’, by T.B. James, Archaeological Journal.
‘Houses of Noble Poverty’, by Brian Howson, Times Literary Supplement, (March 1994)
‘The Great Rebuildings of Tudor and Stuart England’, by Colin Platt, Perspectives on Architecture, (December 1994).
Michael Thompson, ‘The Medieval Hall: The Basis of Secular Life 600-1600AD’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 56:4 (December 1997), pp.50-6.
Francis Sheppard, ‘London: A History’, Stephen Inwood, ‘A History of London’, & Roger Hudson, ‘London Portrait of a City’, The Times Higher Supplement, March 5th 1998, pp.26-7.
John D.Dunbar, ‘The Royal Palaces of Scotland’, Society of Architectural Historians Newsletter, 70, 2000 pp.11-12.
Peter Ackroyd, ‘London the Biography’, The Times Higher Educational Supplement, 16th November 2000.
St Paul’s and Hooke The Times Higher Educational Supplement
Richard Jenkyns, Westminster Abbey, Times Higher Education Supplement, February 25 2005 p.32
David Watkin, ‘The architect King’; Francis Russell, ‘John 3rd Earl of Bute’; Jane Roberts, ‘George II and Queen Caroline’, The Court Historian
John Goodall, The English Castle, Country Life
John Martin Robinson, ‘Felling the Ancient Oaks: How England Lost its Great country estates’, Literary Review May 2012 p.36
Some Journalism
Britain is being Demolished, The Spectator 17 November 2007
Harrowing Heritage The Financial Times 18 September 2010
Renewed Spirits The Financial Times April 23 2011
The Downton Downturn Effect The Financial Times September 10 2011
Overlooked Heritage The Financial Times 31 March 2012