Hampton Court Palace, the magnificent Tudor and Baroque royal residence in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is one of England's most famous haunted locations — and one of the few where supposed supernatural activity has been captured on CCTV. Built by Cardinal Wolsey in 1514 and seized by Henry VIII in 1529, the palace witnessed some of the most dramatic events of the Tudor dynasty, and its long galleries and candlelit corridors are said to echo with the restless dead.
The palace's most frequently reported ghost is Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, who was arrested at Hampton Court in 1541 and subsequently executed for adultery and treason. According to tradition, when the guards came to arrest her, Catherine broke free and ran screaming through the gallery toward the chapel where the king was attending Mass, hoping to plead for her life. She was dragged back before reaching him. The gallery — now known as the Haunted Gallery — is the site of her most common manifestation. Visitors and staff have reported a white figure running silently through the gallery, accompanied by piercing screams, and an overwhelming sense of terror in the space.
Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife who died at Hampton Court in 1537 after giving birth to the future Edward VI, has been seen as a pale figure carrying a candle on the stairs of the Clock Court. A "Grey Lady" — thought to be Sibell Penn, Edward VI's nurse, whose tomb was disturbed during church renovations in 1829 — has been reported in the palace's older wings. In 2003, palace security cameras captured a figure in period dress opening a set of fire doors, and the image was widely circulated. Hampton Court remains one of the most visited historic sites in England, and its ghost stories are now integral to its identity.