Overview
Witness 400 years of royal extravagance, revolutionary drama, and architectural genius—right in the heart of London. Once the largest palace in Europe—surpassing even Versailles and the Vatican—the legendary Palace of Whitehall was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1698. Only one magnificent structure survived: Banqueting House. Designed by Inigo Jones in 1622, this Jacobean masterpiece transformed English architecture forever. Stand beneath the breathtaking, Baroque ceiling canvases painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens—commissioned by King Charles I and one of the only Rubens installations in the world still in its original home. Then, step into the darker side of British history: this very hall was the backdrop for the most shocking moment in the English Civil War. On a chilly January morning in 1649, King Charles I walked beneath his own glorified ceiling, stepped out of a first-floor window onto a wooden scaffold, and was executed before a stunned London crowd.
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