Visitors to see Hampton Court restored in real time

Visitors can watch the conservation work from the Royal Pew

People visiting Hampton Court this summer will be able to observe conservation work on the Chapel Royal as part of their tour of the palace.

An expert team of conservators, curators, surveyors and engineers has been assembled to carry out condition, research and restoration work in the chapel, which was first built in 1514.

Visitors will be able to observe the experts at work from the Royal Pew, described as “like a box at an opera reserved for the monarch”, which looks down upon the main body of the chapel.

For the first time in more than 20 years conservators will be able to get close to the chapel's 18th Century baroque redecoration.

A 33ft (10m) scaffold has been erected in the Chapel

Mika Takami, treatment conservation manager at Historic Royal Palaces, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have this rare, long-awaited opportunity for specialist conservators to get up close to these extraordinary decorative and architectural works by the finest artists and craftsmen of the day.”

The team will ascend a 33ft (10m) bespoke scaffold to examine and restore the work commissioned by Queen Anne in 1710 and masterminded by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who also designed St Paul's Cathedral.

Historic Royal Palaces, a charity that looks after several former Royal residences, including Kensington Palace and the Tower of London, said scaffolding has been put up in a site of "historical significance with complex, sensitive interiors".

The famous vaulted ceiling was installed for Henry VIII

First built in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court was redecorated for William III & Mary II, and later for Queen Anne.

The chapel is where centuries of monarchs worshipped from a private pew on the first floor above the rest of the congregation. The famous vaulted ceiling was installed for Henry VIII in the 1530s.