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The Banqueting House is of great
architectural importance. James I commissioned Inigo
Jones to create a new building in which to entertain foreign
ambassadors, and the house, completed in 1622, was the first
structure in central London to be built in the Classical Palladian
style.
Its stone façade marked a change
from the external decoration of Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture.
Today the Banqueting Hall blends perfectly with the other
buildings of Whitehall, erected 200 years later.
At first the house's Great Hall
was used for pageants, theatre and masked balls. In
1635 Charles I engaged the Flemish artist and diplomat Sir
Peter Paul Rubens to decorate the Great Hall with nine
magnificent ceiling paintings. These paintings were
celebrated the reign of King James I and the divine right
of the Stuart kings. After their no more revelry took
place in the Great Hall, for fear of candle smoke ruining
the artwork.
Unsurprisingly, such glorification
of royalty was despised by by Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians.
On 30 January 1649 Charles I
passed beneath these paintings before stepping out of a first
floor window on to a scaffold to meet his fate. 20 years
later Charles II celebrated his restoration to the throne
at the Banqueting House.
The Banqueting House formed part
of the former Whitehall Palace and was the only survivor of
the fire that devastated most of the buildings in 1698.
Today the Banqueting House is used for banquets, concerts
and important functions. The Great Hall, with its marvellous
ceiling paintings, provides a backdrop for many of society's
glittering occasions.
The admission price includes
an audio guide, and the undercroft, another survivor of the
1698 fire, has a small exhibition and video display.
Admission charge
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