Banqueting House, Whitehall, Westminster, Greater London
The Banqueting House is part of the former Whitehall Palace. It was built in 1619-25 and designed by Inigo Jones in a new interpretation of a Palladian town palace. The frontage was refaced in Portland stone by Soane in 1829-30. The building was designed to be used for 'festive occasions, for formal spectacles, and for the formal ceremonials of the British Court'. It opened in 1622 with a performance of Johnson's 'Masque of Angers'. On 30th January 1669 King Charles I walked out through a first floor window to be executed on a temporary scaffold which had been put up in front of the building. After a fire in 1698 it was no longer used for ceremonial occasions. In 1699 it was converted by Wren into the Chapel Royal. In 1890 it became a military museum.
