Banqueting House

The Banqueting House by Inigo Jones is all that remains of Whitehall Palace. It dates from 1622 and once formed part of Henry VIII's Whitehall Palace - in Henry's time it was the largest royal palace in Europe - (see Whitehall Palace below), which was the main residence of English Monarchs in London from 1530 until 1698, when all except the present building was destroyed by fire.

It contains a magnificent ceiling, by Peter Paul Rubens, that was commissioned by King Charles I in 1635 and as its theme, shows the glorifacation of James I as founder of the Stuart dynasty.

Fast facts

Major Events: King Charles I was executed on a platform erected in front of the building on January 30th 1649. He wore an extra shirt (now in the Museum of London) so that he would not shiver and give the impression of fear on the scaffold.

Other Events: King Charles II held Court here after the Restoration (Samuel Pepys noted in his diary how he was shocked by the lewd behaviour of the Court) Charles died here and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Hidden London: In 1688 Charles's brother, King James II, was forced into exile when his army deserted him. It is said that he relied on a weather vane (if you cross the road to the entrance of Horse Guards and looks towards the roof of the Banqueting House, you can still see it) to predict when the winds would be calm for his crossing to France and exile.

Did you Know: During the excavations for the building of the Ministry of Defence on the site of the old Palace, Henry VIII's wine cellar was discovered and still lies intact under the present building.

WHITEHALL PALACE.

Hubert de Burgh bequeathed a house on this site to the Dominican Friars in the thirteenth century, and they sold it to the Archbishop of York.

For 250 years it was the town-house of the Archbishops of that see, and when Wolsey became Archbishop he entered into his official residence with the intention of beautifying and enlarging it greatly; he had a passion for display, a quality which perhaps cost him more than he was ever aware of. It was a dangerous thing to build or rebuild great mansions close to the palace of so jealous a King as Henry VIII. It was especially dangerous to do so at Whitehall, because the King lived at Westminster in a congeries of old buildings more or less dilapidated and inconvenient. Wolsey's fall was doubtless hastened by his master's covetousness, and after it, by agreement with the Chapter of York, the King had the house conveyed to himself. Up to this time it had been known as York Place, but was henceforth Whitehall. At Anne Boleyn's coronation in the Abbey, the Royal party came to and from Whitehall.

"You must no more call it York Place--that is past
For, since the Cardinal fell, that title's lost;
'Tis now the King's and call'd Whitehall."
'_King Henry VIII._,' Act IV.

It must be remembered that there was then no Parliament Street, and the palace buildings occupied all the ground from Old Scotland Yard to Downing Street, from St. James's Park to the river. King Henry added very much to the land belonging to the palace, also to the buildings. He was fond of sport, and his additions show his tastes in this direction; he built a tennis-court, a tilt-yard,--on the site of the Horse Guards--a bowling-green, and a cockpit. The exact site of the cockpit has long been a matter of uncertainty, but it is now very generally believed that the entrance was just where the present Treasury entrance is.

The palace does not seem to have been very homogeneous; it contained three courts, including Old Scotland Yard, in which was the Guard House. The King and Queen occupied the first court, where was what remained of old York House; here also was the great Hall, the Presence Chamber, and the Banqueting House. In the second court was the way to the Audience and Council Chambers, the Chapel, the offices of the Palace, and the Watergate.

Henry VIII. died in this palace, and all the noble names of his and the succeeding reigns seem to haunt the site of the now vanished building.

Here came Sir Thomas More, Erasmus and Thomas Cromwell; Holbein occupied a set of apartments, and received a salary of 200 florins for painting and decorating the rooms. Here are the ghosts of Cranmer, Katharine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, Latimer and Ridley; later we see a courtlier gathering--Cecil, Essex, Leicester, Raleigh, Drake, Walsingham, Philip Sydney. So true it is, the King doth make the Court.

Some time later, in the reign of Charles II., we have a different class of men altogether--Monk, Clarendon, Sedley, Rochester, Wycherley, Dryden,Butler, Suckling, Carew. Here came crowds to be touched for the King's evil. Here the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth implored pardon at his uncle's feet in vain. Whitehall was also the home of the short-lived masque, a form of entertainment extremely costly.

HOLBEIN GATE

The gatehouse known as the Holbein Gate stood across Whitehall a little south of the banqueting-hall. It was the third, and the most magnificent of those which previously stood in Westminster, and was built by Henry VIII. after the design of Holbein. It is said that one of the chambers was Holbein's studio. Later it was used as a State Paper Office, and was removed in 1750 to widen the street.

Banqueting House - Whitehall, SW1A 2ER - Admission fee moderate.

Open: Mon-Sat  10.00-17.00

Telephone:0870 751 5178

Nearest Tube / London Underground Station(s): Charing Cross or Westminster.

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Have a short walk along Whitehall and discover hidden, secret places from London's Historic Past.