Henry VIII took Hampton Court from Cardinal Wolsey in the 1520s and turned it into the grandest palace in England, and William III and Mary II later added a Baroque palace by Christopher Wren. Its kitchens, its great hall, its gardens and its famous maze draw visitors from all over the world. Hampton, the village a mile or so upriver, has David Garrick's riverside temple to Shakespeare, a heated open-air pool and two of the country's best-known independent schools. Minibus hire Hampton customers book is mostly palace visits and private tours, weddings, school sport and Heathrow runs.
Hampton sits at the southern tip of Richmond borough, between Hampton Court, Hampton Hill, Teddington and Sunbury, with the Thames along its southern edge. From our base in SE1, it's about an hour outside the rush hour, along the A316 or through Kingston.
Minibus hire Hampton for Hampton Court Palace visits
Hampton Court Palace is one of the best days out near London for schools, tour groups and families. The Tudor kitchens, Henry VIII's apartments, the Chapel Royal, the gardens and the maze fill a whole day, and costumed guides bring the Tudor court to life.
The palace has a coach and minibus drop-off near the main gate, and coach parking nearby. The driver drops there and returns at the time you give us, or waits on site. For a school visit, book the palace's learning sessions first, then tell us the time.
A Key Stage 2 Tudors visit usually starts with a session in the kitchens and ends in the maze, and most schools want to be back on the minibus by about two to beat the traffic on Hampton Court Bridge.
Private tours from London
Tour groups and hotel guests from central London often combine Hampton Court with Kew Gardens, Windsor Castle or a river cruise on the same day. Windsor is about thirty minutes from Hampton Court, and Kew about twenty-five. We'll plan the order of the stops, the timings and the drop-offs, and the driver stays with the group all day.
Minibus hire Hampton tour groups book for a Tudor day often adds lunch in a riverside pub and a walk along the Thames Path.
Garrick's Temple and riverside ceremonies
Hampton Court Palace and the venues around it host weddings and private events, and Garrick's Temple, on the riverside lawn in Hampton, and the hotels and riverside venues of Hampton Court and Hampton Wick host ceremonies and receptions. St Mary's, Hampton's riverside church, hosts church weddings.
Guests are collected from hotels and homes, taken to the ceremony, on to the reception and home again late in the evening. Many couples have photographs by the river or in Bushy Park, and we'll build the stops into the timings.
The summer festivals and the ice rink
Every summer, Hampton Court hosts a concert festival in June and the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival in early July, and in winter an ice rink is set up in front of the palace. On festival days, the roads around the palace and the bridge are busy and parking is restricted.
For festival groups, we'll drop at the point the organisers set for coaches and minibuses and agree a meeting point for the return. Garden clubs heading to the RHS festival often buy plants, so leave room in the back and tell us roughly how much you expect to carry home.
School sport and Hampton Pool
Hampton School and Lady Eleanor Holles School, side by side on Hanworth Road, have huge sports programmes, with rowing on the Thames, rugby, hockey, cricket and netball, and they travel to fixtures across the country. Teams book us with their kit, and the driver waits for the result.
Hampton Pool, a heated open-air pool open all year, hosts swimming clubs, galas and summer parties, and Bushy Park and the riverside suit school nature trips. Swimming clubs from across south-west London book us for early morning training and for galas, with the pickup timed for the end of the last race, and the pool's summer parties often need a late run home for children whose parents are at work. Tell us the finish time and the number of swimmers and coaches.
Heathrow and Hampton Court Bridge
Heathrow is about fifteen to twenty-five minutes from Hampton outside the rush hour, via the A308 and the A312. Gatwick is about forty-five to fifty minutes, round the M25 from Sunbury. Hampton Court Bridge, the roundabout at the palace gates and the A308 along the river are busy at peak times and on festival days, and the station and the roads around it fill when the palace is busy. The driver will meet you at the venue or on a quiet road off the A308.
For minibus hire in Hampton, call 020 7183 0567.