Alistair Hardaker | Image: Banqueting House in 2007, looking east.
Visitors to recline on beanbags beneath Rubens ceiling, with digital content and Palace Hosts providing context from 1 August.
The Banqueting House, the last surviving piece of former royal residence the Palace of Whitehall, is to be reopened to the public later this year.
The Palace of Whitehall served as the main home for English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of the building was burned down in a fire.
The surviving Banqueting House is home to the Rubens ceiling, the only artwork by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens to still be displayed in the original space. From August it will see visitors recline on beanbags and cushioned benches for a better view of the painted ceiling.
The reopening follows a project by Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that cares for the Banqueting House, to transform the building, upgrading its facilities and carrying out improvement works including a new passenger lift.
Its reopening next month will include curated digital content, including podcasts and playlists, while ‘Palace Hosts’ will share insights into the building’s architecture, history and artistic significance in person.
Originally created as a space to stage entertainments and completed in 1622 as part of the Palace of Whitehall, the Banqueting House was originally intended to host performances known as ‘masques’, but was later used for diplomatic meetings and to stage the ritual touching carried out by historic English monarchs to heal ‘the King’s Evil’.
In 1893, Queen Victoria granted the building to the Royal United Services Institution to use as a museum. By 1964 it was returned to public ownership and cleared of museum cases.
The opening runs from 1 August to 20 September 2026.
