The Banqueting House
Apart from being a very extravagant and impressive piece of architecture, the Banqueting House is also home to world class concerts. Enjoy one of these spectacular concerts featuring some of the most famous classical musicians of our time. One of these concerts featured soprano Susan Nataly recently who sang to a delighted audience pieces from: Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate - Arias from The Marriage of Figaro - The Barber of Seville - Rusulka's Song to the Moon - O Mio Babbino caro - the Bell Song from Lakme - including some wonderful pieces of operetta and lighter music..This amazing concert was followed by a buffet supper. Tickets were £25 each and were available from the Banqueting House or by telephoning: 020 3166 6153 (09.00 to 17.00) Enquiries were made via email: valerie.jarvis@hrp.org.uk (from outside the UK) Tel: +44 (0)20 3166 6000 (09.00 to 17.00 GMT)As I mentioned previously, theatres in London's West End including Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and Leicester Square area should definitely be on your things to do in London list, and hopefully my web-site will help you discover the very best musicals, shows and concerts on the planet. A programme of concerts at the Banqueting House runs throughout the year starting from £19.00 per ticket.
For example, Rubens’s fine ceiling masterpiece from the golden age of painting is also here. This exquisite ceiling was one of Charles I’s last sights before he lost his head. The King was executed on a scaffold just outside in 1649. Enjoy these paintings in their original setting, as kings and courtiers have for hundreds of years. The only surviving in-situ ceiling painting of Peter Paul Rubens is also one of the most famous, as I mentioned previously, from a golden age of painting. It’s incredibly impressive, two canvasses measure 28x20ft and two others measure 40x10ft. While there, you must explore the Undercroft, originally designed as a drinking den for James I where he could escape the rigors of public life or simply enjoy some private time with his favourite courtiers. Now for a little more history about the Banqueting House. On a bitterly cold winters day in 1649, a small procession left St. James's Palace and walked through the picturesque park to Whitehall in London. The king of England was going to his execution. Crossing Whitehall, Charles I may have had his first glimpse of the scaffold built outside the central windows of this building, which is now all that is left of the fabulous Whitehall Palace on this site. It would be his last look at the perfectly proportioned Palladian building commissioned by his father, James I, for grand dining occasions. Banqueting House and the fate of Charles I are inextricably tied together. The proportions of the hall, one of the grandest rooms in England, create a perfect double cube at 110 feet long and 55 feet high. This design, created by Inigo Jones in 1622, represents the harmony of the universe, of peace, order and power--the virtues of divine kingship instilled in Charles I by his father. The building, possibly London's first with a facade of Portland stone, so inspired writer Horace Walpole that he dubbed it "the model of the most pure and beautiful taste". The magnificent ceiling, which Charles commissioned from Peter Paul Rubens, represents the glorification of James I, a statement of James's belief in the absolute right and God-given power of kings.
Again, the canvases were painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens and were installed in the hall in 1636. The three main canvasses depict The Union of the Crowns, The Apotheosis of James I and The Peaceful Reign of James I. Lavishly illustrated with superb colour plates, this 39 page guide (shown on the left) tells the fascinating story of the only remaining part of Whitehall Palace. Paperback, 29.6 x 18.5cm.
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