Banqueting House (London)
The Banqueting House is a most impressive building in the Westminster area of London.
It is situated in Whitehall, not far from Trafalgar Square.
The Banqueting House, a revolutionary building in its time, was designed by Inigo Jones and was the first in England to be designed in a Palladian style.
Jones built it for James I and it was completed in 1622.
Peter Paul Rubens painted a magnificent ceiling, between 1630 and 1634.
It was at the Banqueting House that James I`s son, Charles I, was beheaded, to the "dismal, universal groan" of the crowd.
A bust of Charles I marks the spot of his execution.