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
Clan Hamilton in 1868. The third Marquess, James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton was a staunch supporter of Charles I. Charles rewarded him with the dukedom in 1643, which made Hamilton the premier peer in Scotland. Hamilton led a royalist army into England but was defeated at the Battle of Preston (1648) by the Parliamentarians of Oliver Cromwell. Hamilton was later executed in 1649 at Whitehall shortly before the king met the same fate. Hamilton's brother, William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton was also a brave soldier but was killed at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The title passed to Anne