After the fire that destroyed Whitehall Palace in 1698, it was used as a chapel until 1890. From 1896 until 1962 the Banquteing House was occupied by the Royal United Services Institute and used as a museum. Discover why these are unmissable sights at Banqueting House:
Charles I's Scaffold
On 30 January 1649, Charles I was executed just outside the Banqueting House, on a scaffold stage especially erected in Whitehall.
Rubens' Ceiling
The only surviving in-situ ceiling painting of Peter Paul Rubens is also one of the most famous from a golden age of painting.
The Undercroft
The vaulted undercroft of the Banqueting House was designed as a drinking den for King James I and his friends. Poet Ben Jonson, the Shakespeare of his day, wrote this dedication for the Banqueting House's undercroft as a drinking den in 1623:
Since Bacchus, thou art father
Of wines, to thee the rather
We dedicate this Cellar
Where now, thou art made Dweller
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