Whitehall Palace, London

King Henry VIII seized not only Hampton Court from Cardinal Wolsey when the latter failed to secure an annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon in 1529, but also the Cardinal’s London residence which was then known as York Place, the Cardinal being Archbishop of York.

Henry developed the site with considerable rebuilding and the addition of a new embankment on the side facing the River Thames. The new name for the property was Whitehall Palace, and it became his principal London residence, just as it had been that of the unfortunate Cardinal. 

Henry also acquired fields to the west of the site and added a tiltyard, bowling alley, tennis court and cockpit. These were where St James’s Park is now.

The Palace was where he married both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, and where the latter died.

The sprawl of buildings lacked a proper Banqueting Hall, and it was not until the reign of King James I that one was added. This burnt down in 1619 and a new one was built, to the design of Inigo Jones. This one survives to the present day and it is open to the public, known now as the Banqueting House. It is notable for its splendid Palladian architecture and ceiling panels painted by Peter Paul Rubens.

It was outside the Banqueting Hall that King Charles I was executed in 1649.

Later monarchs also lived at Whitehall Palace, but William III found that the bad air from the river did not help his asthma and preferred to spend more time at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court.

A fire in 1698 destroyed nearly all the Palace, but fortunately spared the Banqueting Hall. The land on which the Palace had stood became the site of the government offices for which Whitehall is best known today.

© John Welford