Banqueting House, Whitehall Banqueting House, Whitehall The Banqueting House, Whitehall, is the grandest and best known survivor of the architectural genre of banqueting house and the only remaining component of the Palace of Whitehall. The building is important in the history of English architecture as the first structure to be completed in the neo-classical style, which was to transform English architecture. Begun in 1619 and designed by Inigo Jones in a style influenced by Andrea Palladio, the Banqueting House was completed in 1622 at a cost of £15,618, 27 years before King Charles I of England was beheaded on a scaffold in front
Whitehall Group visits to Spanish royal and noble picture collections, which awakened the interest of Charles in what could be achieved by art. He also accompanied Buckingham to Paris when Charles married Henrietta Maria by proxy. He continued to act on behalf of Buckingham and (after Buckingham's assassination) other members of the Whitehall group. In 1640, he wrote to both the King and the Earl of Arundel announcing the death of Rubens and pointing out the opportunity this provided to acquire fine paintings. Daniel Nys was "a strange, shadowy, Flemish dealer who knew Italy well". In 162I he facilitated the purchase of