Name: Banqueting Hall
Start: 2023-07-14T12:00
End: 2033-07-14T12:00
Location: Banqueting House

Explore James I and VI's 'great hall', completed in 1622 as a venue for extravagant entertainment

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When

Open days and Members-only days

Ticketing information

Included in palace admission (Members go free)

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Things to see

Step into the heart of the Banqueting House. This opulent hall, with its enormous double-cube proportions, was designed to impress and to reflect the magnificence of the Stuart king.

Architect Inigo Jones, influenced by his European travels, mimicked the ancient Roman buildings he had seen in Italy. With grand interior columns, he created his own version of a Roman basilica, where James I and VI was to sit enthroned in state, just like an Emperor.

Discover Rubens' painted ceiling

This unique masterpiece by Sir Peter Paul Rubens was installed in the Banqueting Hall in 1636. It is the only surviving Rubens ceiling painting still in situ.

Inigo Jones designed the carved and gilded ceiling frames for the huge canvases. The ceiling is made from timber, jointed and pieced together.

Banqueting Hall highlights

Large gold painted wall and ceiling decorations in are displayed above a large white room. The ceiling decorations frame two painted canvases that are positioned across the ceiling.

Carved ceiling: Inigo Jones’ design for the ceiling was influenced by some of the impressive carved ceilings that he saw in Venice. The white paint on the carved ceiling was added in 1964, but Ruben’s paintings were originally framed with a walnut-tree brown colour and lots of gilding.

Large gold painted wall and ceiling decorations in are displayed above a large white room.

Mask and garland designs: A wall painting of masks and garlands can be seen beneath the ceiling. This reflects the carved frieze of the same design outside the building, and relates to the original function of the Banqueting House as a venue for masque performances.

The tops of three white columns with gold-painted decorations at the top.

Gilded capitals: The gilded capitals, which seem to ‘support’ the ceiling, are carved in stone and are richly gilded with pure gold leaf. They are important survivals of Inigo Jones’ original construction, as all of the capitals on the outside of the building were replaced in the nineteenth century.

The history of the Banqueting Hall

The Banqueting Hall has witnessed many significant events over the centuries. Inigo Jones designed the hall to host masques: elaborate theatrical performances that celebrated the reign of the Stuart monarchs.

It was also the setting for important ambassadorial receptions, magnificent feasts and royal ceremonies, such as a royal healing ceremony as well as dispensing Maundy money during Easter.

During Charles I’s reign, masques were banned to protect Rubens’ paintings from flames and smoke, and the hall was instead used as a royal presence chamber where the King received ambassadors and dignitaries.

Charles II was restored to the throne in a ceremony in the Banqueting Hall, over 11 years after his father, Charles I, had been executed just outside. William of Orange and his wife Mary Stuart were read the Bill of Rights in February 1689 in this room, before they jointly accepted the crown.

Aquatint by John Bluck (fl.1791-1819) depicting the Banqueting House, Whitehall in use as a chapel. The location 'Whitehall' is inscribed at the bottom of the print.

After fire destroyed Whitehall Palace in 1698, the Banqueting House was fitted up as a Chapel Royal. In the early 19th century it became a military chapel and from the 1830s until 1890 was again used as a Chapel Royal.

A Chapel Royal

Following the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698, Sir Christopher Wren refurbished the hall as the main Chapel Royal. The altar was at the north end, and a royal pew was placed opposite at the south end, where the replica throne is today.

Even when the Chapel Royal moved to St James’s Palace, the hall served as a chapel for preaching and public ceremonies. In 1809 the building became a military chapel, where up to 2,000 soldiers took part in a service.

After the 1830s sumptuous velvet swags hung between the pillars and pew boxes ran down the long sides of the hall.

A Victorian museum

In 1893 Queen Victoria granted the building to the Royal United Services Institution to use as a museum. Cases full of military curiosities were crammed into the hall while banners hung from the ceiling.