Three Edwardian visitors — two women in long skirts and a gentleman in a dark coat — stand dwarfed beneath the magnificent Anne Boleyn Gateway at Hampton Court Palace, its soaring Tudor brickwork crowned by the famous astronomical clock installed for Henry VIII in 1540, the whole ensemble rising against a pale sky in this wonderfully sharp real-photo postcard numbered 508. Hampton Court, begun by Cardinal Wolsey and seized by Henry VIII, was opened to the public by Queen Victoria in 1838 and by the Edwardian era had become one of England's most beloved day-trip destinations, easily reached by train from London Waterloo. The three tiny figures in the archway give a magnificent sense of scale and add the human warmth that makes topographical postcards so compelling as social documents. This card was produced by Lévy & Fils (LL) of Paris — one of the great international postcard publishers whose British series are among the finest photographic topographicals of the era. The reverse, printed in France, notes inland rate of ½d and foreign rate of 1d, placing production firmly in the pre-1910 period. Unused and clean.