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The Banqueting House of Whitehall Palace

By Peter Easton

…and in the Banqueting-house saw the King create my Lord Chancellor and several others, Earls, and Mr. Crew and several others, Barons: the first being led up by Heralds and five old Earls to the King, and there the patent is read, and the King puts on his vest, and sword, and coronet, and gives him the patent. And then he kisseth the King’s hand, and rises and stands covered before the king. And the same for the Barons, only he is led up but by three of the old Barons, and are girt with swords before they go to the King.
20th April 16611

The scene described here took place in the very room shown in the picture below, now restored to its original decoration and with the throne where worthy subjects presented themselves to the King for ennoblement. The hall was where foreign ambassadors paid their respects to the monarch as well as being the venue for various royal parties and celebrations.

The Banqueting House Interior
The Banqueting House Interior

The Banqueting House is the last surviving building of the great palace of Whitehall, but was the newest part of the palace at the time of Samuel Pepys’s diaries. Although not a victim of the Great Fire of 1666, the palace succumbed to another fire in 1698, leaving just the Banqueting House remaining. The building was designed by Inigo Jones to the commission of James I and completed in 1622. Built in the Italian Palladian style, it was the first major classical building in England

Samuel Pepys and Fleet StreetSt Margaret's Church, Westminster

Posted: Thursday 15 September 2005

If you would like to contribute an article on any topic related to Pepys or the period in which he lived just email phil [at] gyford [dot] com

Comments

  • N Jeannine on Thu 15 Sep 2005, 11:45pm

    Peter….Another job well done—beautiful pictures and descriptions. The ceiling is magnificent. Thanks once again!

  • N Mary House on Fri 16 Sep 2005, 01:59am

    Wonderful article, Peter. thank you.

  • N Todd Bernhardt on Fri 16 Sep 2005, 01:42pm

    Very nice! The Hall was closed for a special function when I was in London in June, and this helps me deal with the pain a bit… :-)

  • N JWB on Sat 26 Nov 2005, 10:59pm

    The old “Banquiting House”
    Peter Ackroyd in “Sakespeare” notes that Othello played in the old hall for James I. Built by Elizabeth I 23 yrs before, the King thought it “old, rotten and slight-built shed”, and so …

  • N Jyoti Sachdev on Tue 30 May 2006, 12:43pm

    Hello,
    We are a book packaging company based in Delhi, India. We are mainly into children educational/reference books. We do these book for the publishers based in UK and US.
    Currently we are working on a book titled Henry VIII, for which we require image of “Place of whitehall ceiling”
    and recently we have came across a very stunning image of the same from your site.


    We would like to use the image in a children educational book.
    Plz if u provide me the high resolution for the same

    kindly get back to us as soon as possible.
    waiting for your reply.
    Regards,
    Jyoti Sachdev
    jyotis@q2aindia

  • N Todd Bernhardt on Wed 31 May 2006, 12:53am

    The paintings on the ceiling of the Banqueting Hall were commissioned by Charles I, so they were created a bit more than a century after Henry VIII moved in.

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Samuel Pepys and Fleet StreetSt Margaret's Church, Westminster