Today, if I told you that we were going to Whitehall, you would assume quite rightly that I was talking about a major road in Westminster. This road stretches between the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, and Trafalgar Square where you will find the National Gallery and a column topped by the 5-metre-tall statue of Admiral Lord Nelson. Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar so this square is a monument to one of our greatest ever war heroes and is named after the battle that he won just before he died of his wounds.
🔗Read more: The New National Portrait Gallery
📢Listen now: Episode 42: John Julius Angerstein: The Man Behind The National Gallery
Whitehall Palace and the Tudors
The majority of the buildings on Whitehall are government offices and just off this road you’ll find Downing Street, home to our Prime Minister and our Chancellor of the Exchequer. Whitehall takes its name from a Tudor palace that was built on this site in the early 1500s.
Advisor to King Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey had a very fine house here. Prior to being a Catholic Cardinal he was the Archbishop of York and chose to call his new home York House. The house was very large and very beautiful (maybe too beautiful). The house was on the shore of the Thames and had a watergate so you could conveniently use the river for travelling.
In 1530 Henry was so enamoured of Wolsey’s London townhouse that he allowed the Cardinal to gift it to him. Wolsey should have known not to build a house better than your boss’s home.
Henry made Whitehall his principal residence and the old medieval Palace of Westminster became the administrative centre of his court. Whitehall was the palace in which King Henry VIII died and his first-born daughter, Queen Mary I, also lived. This is where she was married in 1554 by proxy to Philip II of Spain. A Catholic power-couple who would rule both England and Spain.
Today, if you venture behind the Ministry of Defence building, you’ll find the remnants of Queen Mary’s Steps. This is not named for Queen Mary I, England’s first Queen regnant, but was for our next named Queen Mary.
Architecture and Inigo Jones’ Banqueting House
The Protestant Queen Mary II who deposed her Catholic father, King James II, in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. King James I tasked his Surveyor General, Inigo Jones, to replace his ‘od, rotten, slight-builded shed’ of a banqueting room into a modern and fashionable new Banqueting House. In 1622 Jones, a great traveller and lover of both classical and neo-classical architecture, completed his work on the new Palladian-style Banqueting House. Jones ensured that all the proportions were to the classical standards.
In 1622 Jones, a great traveller and lover of both classical and neo-classical architecture, completed his work on the new Palladian-style Banqueting House. Jones ensured that all the proportions were to the classical standards.
Inside a double cube with a balcony running around at first floor level gives plenty of entertaining space. Here the King can hold masques and heal the sick at his yearly ‘Touching of the King’s Evil’ ceremonies.
On this day you’ll find the King laying hands on his subjects of all classes who have been inflicted with scrofula (a form of tuberculosis affecting the lymph nodes). Prayers are read out, the King does his magical touching, and the ‘cured’ go away with a coin and the knowledge that are now miraculously healthy (probably not though).
Dramatic Events and Decline
In 1698 one of the Dutch maidservants was ironing the bedsheets. This was done with a tin box filled with hot coals. There was one rule – don’t leave the iron unattended. We don’t know what caused the rule-breaking on this day but when she came back into the room it was fully ablaze.
The Palace of Whitehall burned for three days. Over the intervening years, Whitehall had grown to 1,500 rooms and covered 23 acres. This was Europe’s largest palace. When finally the fire was put out only the Banqueting House remained.
Legacy and Modern Whitehall
Today you can walk down the street of Whitehall and hear about 500 years of history. The Banqueting House remains one of London’s most beautiful buildings.
Come on our Wonders of Whitehall Walk to hear more stories of the Tudor and Stuart kings and even today’s House of Windsor!
