The Banqueting House is the only major surviving part of the vast Palace of Whitehall, which burned down in 1698. Designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1622, it was the first building in England in the pure classical Palladian style, and its restrained stone façade on Whitehall still looks startlingly modern among its neighbours.
Inside, the single great hall is crowned by a ceiling of nine canvases painted by Peter Paul Rubens, glorifying the reign of James I — the only Rubens ceiling still in its original setting. The building's darkest moment came in 1649, when Charles I was led from a window of the hall to his execution on a scaffold outside. Compact but extraordinary, it rewards a short visit on the walk up Whitehall.