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

A team of experts consisting of conservators, curators, assessors and engineers was assembled to carry out condition, research and restoration work on the chapel, which was built in 1514.

Visitors can watch the experts at work from the Royal Pew, which serves as “like a box reserved for the monarch at the opera”from where you look down on the main part of the chapel.

For the first time in more than 20 years, restorers can take a close look at the 18th-century baroque redesign of the chapel.

Mika Takami, Head of Conservation at Historic Royal Palaces, said: “We are extremely pleased to offer this rare, long-awaited opportunity for specialist conservators to view up close these extraordinary decorative and architectural works by the finest artists and craftsmen of their time.”

The team will climb a 10-metre-high, specially built scaffold to examine and restore the work, which was commissioned by Queen Anne in 1710 and designed 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 had been erected at a site of “historic significance with complex, sensitive interiors”.

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

For centuries, monarchs worshipped in the chapel 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.