Wanstead Hall

Wanstead Hall was the manor house for the Manor of Wanstead, now in the London Borough of Redbridge but historically in the county of Essex. It was later demolished to make way for the construction of Wanstead House.

It was probably quite a small building until the 14th century, but by 1499 it was large enough to serve as a royal hunting-lodge, when it was acquired by King Henry VII, one of whose favourite resorts it was to become. Henry had developed a taste for privacy towards the end of his reign, and acquired Wanstead as a maison de retraite in the vicinity of Greenwich Palace, laying out considerable sums on it. It was valued by him especially for its park, bringing the King much needed seclusion. It is also interesting to note that Henry VII used Wanstead as a location for receiving payments from what the Tudor historian David Starkey calls his “slush fund” of extra-parliamentary taxation and fines, away from the eyes of the magnates in the formal royal palaces. The young future Henry VIII lived for a while at Wanstead and at the other maison de retraite of Hanworth in enforced proximity to his father Henry VII during the last years of his reign. Both kings hunted within the manor.

It was during Henry VIII's reign (1509–1547) that Wanstead Park was inclosed, shortly before 1512, which probably involved the clearance of some wooded areas. At about this time neighbouring Aldersbrook became a separate manor. Wanstead remained a Royal manor for a number of years, its “keeper” being an office awarded to favoured royal courtiers, one after another. Hugh Denys (d.1511) Groom of the Stool to Henry VII was its keeper until 1511, being one of the King's key financial officers who often received the “slush fund” monies there on the King's behalf. On Denys's death in 1511 the keepership passed to Charles Brandon, later Duke of Suffolk and from 1515 Henry's brother-in-law via marriage to his sister Mary Tudor.

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