The Lost Palace

[Guest]

4th August 2017

The Lost Palace

Often people ask “What is there to do in London?” and I churn out the usual, London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Tussaud’s, river trips stuff.

What I’m doing today is recently new. Now I know the title has a kind of fairy tale ring to it or the fantasy of a Hollywood film but what follows is totally fact:

If you are not into history then don’t read on. I’d hate to bore you. Personally, I love this stuff and on this new tour I discovered an awful lot I didn’t know about the area of Whitehall in London. It’s going to take me 90 minutes to two hours to complete a tour depending what pace I do it at. Our group, four adults and two children tended to stick together but there is no obligation to do so. It does involve a fair bit of walking but there are places to sit awhile on the route.

This is today’s Whitehall viewed from the air:

Apologies for the use of “Big Ben”. That, of course, is the bell not the tower (recently named Elizabeth Tower) but people are more familiar with that nickname.

These are the precincts of the Lost Palace – the Palace of White Hall. (Note the two words were originally separate.) :

With the magic of outstanding audio we are going to walk around a large area of it. This was the largest Palace in Europe for its time with 1500 rooms along its corridors overtaking the Vatican. It sprawled from close to the modern day Trafalgar Square all the way down to the Palace of Westminster. (Modern day Houses of Parliament.)The French would eventually exceed this with their Palace of Versailles.

It is suggested you book in advance for this tour and if you are interested go here:
hrp.uk/banqueting-ho...ce/#gs.nM4QNxM

You meet at the Banqueting House on Whitehall.

They ask you to turn up 15 minutes before your allotted tour time. This is so they can explain how the strange shaped wooden device should be used. When the “burnt” end is place against certain doors, arches and other objects erected along the streets– the audio via your set of superb headphones will give you the appropriate “happenings”.

I know it sounds odd but the sound is “3D”. The strange device will also be used as a sword or a drumstick. You’ll see as I travel the route.

Where we meet is the vaulted undercroft of this building. This would have been the private apartments for James I. I found it odd that a King should have his rooms here as usually such areas in buildings are used for storage or soldiers quarters. Many a late night party was held here!

By the 13th century the Palace of Westminster had become the centre of government in England, and had been the main London residence of the King since 1049. The surrounding area became a popular and expensive location. The Archbishop of York, Walter de Grey bought a nearby riverside property as his London residence soon after 1240, calling it York Place.

However, we are about to go back to the year of 1530. Cardinal Wolsey had had York Place renovated and extended so that it almost rivaled Lambeth Palace, further up river, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. After failing to negotiate an annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Wolsey fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles. He was charged with treason — a common charge used by Henry against ministers who displeased him — Henry seized York Place for his London residence (as well as taking Hampton Court). He would model it on Richmond Palace by adding bowling greens , tennis courts and Privy gardens. This picture shows the expanded York House to the left and the Banqueting House of to upper right. The red circle denotes where I will be shortly on the tour.

The space in between would have been the site of Henry’s Great Hall.

The Banqueting Hall as we know it today would be built later in 1622 by James I.

The tour begins within the vaults where we are admitted to a room where a wooden model of the Palace of White Hall lies before us.

It’s quite plain until the technology kicks in and projection overlays show exactly what we are looking at. Suddenly you realise that this area was all part of the great palace.

You are asked to touch the edge of the model with the wooden device. Descriptive audio via your headphones explains, quite vividly with sound, the fire that would destroy most of it. The audio is so clever that you really feel that people are rushing around you trying to extinguish the flames.

We are now invited to leave the Banqueting House but before we turn into Horse Guards Avenue we are asked to place our devices on the “burnt” pieces of wood attached to the outside railings:

To our right here would have been the Palace Gateway. We are given a welcome to White Hall. On turning into Horse Guards Avenue we come across a door standing alone on the pavement. This the is the red circle I referred to in the picture of York Place above. This simulates the entrance to the wine cellars and by placing the device on it a serving girl describes how it was all organised so that drink was provided within the Great Hall. We also get to hear conversations in the Great Hall and references to Anne Boleyn whose first appearance at Court was as the character “Perseverance” in a masque presented for the King. Henry was more interested in her elder sister, Mary, at this time.

The wine cellar I mention still exists. It is found in the basement of the Ministry of Defence building but we don’t get to visit it:

The atmosphere changes in the Hall and we are now invited to audition for William Shakespeare. The play is King Lear and we are asked to perform the line: “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!”. Some in the group are self conscious and don’t participate despite the encouragements that Will gives us. We are in a public street after all. Shakespeare debates the performances and decides that Richard Burbage should have the part. He was lead in Will’s plays back then.

It’s worth mentioning that the area across the road where the Old War Office stands was an enclosed courtyard called Scotland Yard. This is some distance from the Scotland Yard area we know today.
We suddenly pick up a conversation about a letter which gives report of a Catholic plot to kill King James I and his Lords by use of gunpowder. The anonymous letter had been sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, on 26 October 1605. During a search of the House of Lords at about midnight on 4 November 1605, Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder—enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble—and arrested.

We pass by the entrance to the Ministry of Defence and are reminded that this would have been part of the Court and Great Hall area. This illustration shows how the Great Hall might have looked inside (this is the one at Hampton Court):

:

Our voice guide asks us to look up at the two sculptures either side of the entrance. They represent Air and Water (RAF and Royal Navy. The ground is the Army.)

Turning the corner we enter into Victoria Embankment Gardens. Back in 1530 this area would have been the Thames! The Embankments were built in 1865 to 1870 thus making the river some 40 yards narrower than it used to be. Because it was wider it was slower moving and when it froze in winter “Frost Fairs” would be held on the thick ice.

It’s here that there are some remains of the later palace alterations– Queen Mary’s steps. In 1691, Sir Christopher Wren designed for Queen Mary II a terrace overlooking the Thames in front of the old river wall of Whitehall Palace. The steps would allow the monarch to pass from the Palace to the Royal Barge.

We are asked to take a park bench and whilst doing so point our lump of wood at the Ministry of Defence windows.

I must confess I found this a little odd in view of current security alerts and later would get reference to it on the audio. You pick up on various conversations – all involving scandal at court of one type or another. It’s worth mentioning that if you stop pointing at the building the conversations fade away but then resume when you point back again. (I’m thinking this is RFID technology we are using here.)

Suddenly, we hear someone using a keyboard. The typing stops and a female voice says: “There’s a group down on the terrace and they are pointing things at this building! Get security!” We are then treated to a radio message about strangers pointing things at the Ministry. A male voice responds: “It’s OK. We know about it. It some people doing a tour from the Banqueting House”.

The audio changes. We hear the sounds of a great fire, beams and masonry falling then a young female speaks. “It was all my fault.” It’s 4th January 1698. Laundry left drying over charcoal by the girl has caught fire. It quickly spreads from building to building.

Despite use of water engines and gunpowder to cause break barriers the fire rages. Two days later the Palace had been reduced to “A heap of rubbish and ashes”. The Great Hall, royal lodgings and chapel were lost. Then we hear the girl’s ghostly voice say: “I was the first to die.” Quite chilling.

There is a short break and then we are asked to head for the top left corner of the gardens. We pass by memorials for our military. The Korean War one is quite impressive. Also at the end of the gardens is the new Scotland Yard Police Headquarters (nothing to do with this tour – I merely mention it:

We pass along the back of the Ministry of Defence building and come out alongside a grassed terrace on Whitehall. It just looks like a lawn today but it was in fact part of the Privy Garden of Henry’s White Hall.

However, it’s stories of Charles II’s mistresses that we hear about by placing our modern device against the posts with King’s beasts on the top.

One mistress, Lady Castlemaine was so incensed by the King marrying that on the wedding day she hung her laundry out to dry in the Privy garden in protest of the new Queen. Samuel Pepys was walking in the garden and reported that he spotted the “finest smocks and linen petticoats that I ever saw.”

We are asked to place our wooden blocks on the sundial post. Charles II had a prized sundial in the middle of the garden. The pyramidal dial told the time in the most remarkable ways and was formed of iron branches, glass bowls and portraits of the Royal family.

One evening in 1675 the 2nd Earl of Rochester wandered into the garden worse the wear for drink. Rochester launched at the sundial with his sword shouting: “Kings and Kingdoms are overturned and so shalt thou!” Later learning of the sundial’s fate Charles fled court in an attempt to calm his anger. Rochester very wisely fled Whitehall. Waving our device around produces the clashing sound of a sword on metal.

I must mention that passing tourists are gawping at us and one remarks to his partner: “What on earth are they doing?” That quite amused me. We are directed to cross over Whitehall to the Scottish Office – Dover House. This now stands on the site of what was the Holbein gate. This joined the two “halves” of the Palace together:

We "enter" the Holbein gatehouse through the arch:

We are asked to point upwards with the block. A marriage is taking place in the gatehouse. It is the morning of 25th January 1533 and Henry VIII is secretly marrying Anne Boleyn despite the fact that his divorce from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, is not complete! The chaplain had wisely asked Henry for the Pope’s agreement but the King merely duped the priest.

The gate was demolished in 1759.

We now are instructed to walk through Horse Guards Parade. I stop to get a photo of one of the Horse Guards on sentry on his horse.

(The walk through to the Parade Ground always makes me feel uncomfortable. I recall standing across the road by the Old War Office on 6th September 1997. A gun carriage bearing the coffin of Princess Diana passed through here on its way to Westminster Abbey. It was followed by two young boys – Prince William and Prince Harry.)

Out on the Parade Ground we are told to look to the left. In the distance you can see a wall with trees. Over that wall are the gardens of No 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s Garden.

Back in Henry VIII’s time that was a cockpit where fowl would fight and bets were placed on them. It was a two story structure with a lantern and the King’s Beasts adorning it.

It was converted to a theatre in 1629 by Inigo Jones on Charles I’s orders.

We are now invited to look to the right. This was the tilt yard where jousting would take place.

You are invited to point your device to what you would like to do – cock fight or jousting. Everybody in our group opts for jousting. Next thing your steward appears in your ear as he dons you with armour. Your cuirass – that’s a breast plate and back plate. Arm braces and your helmet. You mount your horse, take your lance. The signal is given and you gallop towards your foe.

CRASH! You are knocked from your horse to the ground. The steward comes to check on you with a cheeky “You alright in there?” There is alternative for the little ones. They get a story about the menagerie that James I had in St. James’s park. The animals were given to him by foreign monarchs and they would have all been kept here in cages. Parrots, ostriches, a possum and a beaver were amongst the collection.

The mood changes. We are asked to beat a drum. The pace is one of regimented footsteps. Across St. James’s Park Charles I is being escorted from St. James’s Palace. towards Whitehall.

He tells us that he has just said goodbye to his children knowing he will never see them again. The pound of his heart grows stronger. It is 30th January 1649 and it’s a cold, bitter day. He is taken over to the Banqueting Hall and we are asked to follow.

As we stop before the entrance of the Banqueting Hall we are invited to look up. There is a plaque and bust of Charles I.

Above this plaque was once a window through which he would pass on his way to the black draped scaffold on Whitehall. The executioner bids the King to pack his hair into the hat he is wearing “so I can make a clean blow”. The drums roll and the crowd murmur.
The King’s final words: “I go from a corrupt to an incorruptible crown.” The axe swings and the King’s head is severed from its body.

Oliver Cromwell , the Lord Protector, had tried to reason with the King about a controlled monarchy after the monarch's capture in the Civil War. 3 years would pass by but Charles I would be duplicitous, conspiring with Scotland and he was eventually denounced as a traitor and thus sentenced to death.

Charles II, his son would have revenge on the now dead Oliver Cromwell after the monarchy had been restored. Cromwell's body was exhumed, hung,symbolically dismembered and his rotting head displayed on a spike at Westminster.

We enter the Banqueting House and proceed up the stairs. At the top of the staircase is a portrait of Charles I.

This magnificent building was constructed for James I in 1622 for the performance of masques and ambassadorial receptions.

Performances were a sort of propaganda promoting the Stuart rule. Masques were discontinued after 1636 as Charles I commissioned Rubens to paint the ceiling installation. The scenes celebrate “The divine right of Kings” – yet another form of propaganda. We are invited to take a bean bag and lie back whilst the scenes above as described to us.

This room has seen many a banquet presided over by the Monarch often sitting on his throne. There would be two stools, one either side of the throne. These were for the King Charles spaniels beloved by the King. What a notion to finish this tour on!

** Note: Apart from the Palace model at the beginning of the tour and the door frames and sundial, not all of the other photos or illustrations I have used above may appear on the walk. I added them merely to convey what areas of Whitehall may have looked like back in time or look like in the present day.

[Gryff]

Sounds as though it was a great experience

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Geoff. What an awesome day you had and thank you for such an interesting insight into the history of the time.
When you tipped me off about where you were going I am sad to say I had to Google it.
Fantastic report, well done.

[Eeyore rocks]

It must of been a great tour, and the wooden device that makes it 'come alive' gave it another dimension all together.

Thanks for sharing.

[Gill H]

Wow, what an amazing experience.

I work near there every day but really haven't explored the area in any depth.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by Gill H

Wow, what an amazing experience.

I work near there every day but really haven't explored the area in any depth.

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Gill. Isn't that so true for a lot of us sadly. I have never done a full tour of Cardiff Castle and it's 2 miles from me!

I am embarrassed sometimes about how little I know of my local history let alone National.

[Guest]

It surprises me that sometimes I know more about American history than some Americans do.

[Melvin Pearce]

Originally Posted by geoffa

It surprises me that sometimes I know more about American history than some Americans do.

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That doesn't surprise us, Geoff

Thank you for this report it sounds as if it is well organised. Glad you had a good day.

We have only recently read books of our local history of Datchet and Windsor.

Lesley and Melvin

[Guest]

I just find it amazing that their ishistory beneath our feet and we don't realise it. Likewise - how often do people walk around towns and cities and never look up? I can find you the Devil resting on top of a branch of Boots the Chemist in Manchester!

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by geoffa

I just find it amazing that their ishistory beneath our feet and we don't realise it. Likewise - how often do people walk around towns and cities and never look up? I can find you the Devil resting on top of a branch of Boots the Chemist in Manchester!

See more...

A very true comment about us not looking up. Many years ago the South Wales Echo ran a weekly competition where they would show a photo of a tiny bit of architecture of a building in the City Centre. Invariably it wasn't won!