Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Whitehall Palace in a Nutshell > Status Update

'The king's bed was made out of walnut. It was constructed over ten months at a cost if £83.3s.10d. (£24,957.50)... During 1542, his great bed of walnut wood at Whitehall was enlarged to measure 7 feet 6 inches long and 7 feet wide, to accommodate his increasing side.'

'By the early 19th century, the leases of the land were being reclaimed by the government, and the buildings put to use as government offices. The areas of Whitehall was transformed once again into the seat of the British government, as it remains today.'

'Amazingly, after the fire of 1698, the King Street Gate and Holbein Gate survived, and despite their inconvenience there was much affection for these structures. Proposals were made for diverting the traffic to save them, but the King Street Gate was deemed to be too great and obstruction and it was sadly demolished in 1723. Efforts to save Holbein Gate were more successful, for a little time at least'

'By early the next morning, the flames had reduced to ash all that stood in their way. Fifteen hours after the start of the fire, the flames were finally extinguished. But the fire-fighters should not have gone home. A gentle breeze re-ignited smouldering timbers, making the second day's blaze more ferocious than the first. On the palace's riverside, all the main buildings except the Banqueting House were lost.'

'It had survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 and thus seemed indestructible. However, thirty-two years later, during the day of Tuesday 4 January 1698, a Dutch laundress lit a quantity of charcoal on an open fire to dry some linen... As soon as the fire was spotted, palace staff were sent to fight the flames. Pumps produced no more than a dribble and the buckets of water thrown onto the fire had no effect.'

'On 9 April 1691, fire broke out in the Duke of Gloucester's lodgings at Whitehall, started by candles that had been lit by a maid. The fire quickly took hold in the oldest and most populated part of the place. A decision to blow up part of the palace was made, and it succeeded in stopping the fire. Sadly, the fire destroyed a large part of the old Tudor palace.'

'Whitehall Palace had a new master, although William and Mary had no real fondness of the now old palace; they thought it to be much too large for their needs. Whitehall, being in the heart of the biggest city in Europe, was damp, and the coal fire aggravated William's asthma. William and Mary soon moved to Hampton Court.'

'He was 'casually in the Privy Gallery at White-hall' speaking to the king, who asked him whether he had a crayon and paper. Evelyn 'presented him with both and then laying it on the window stool, he with his own hand, designed to me the plot for the future building of Whitehall, together with the Rooms of state and other particulars'...'

'Charles was taken to the stair tower at the north of the Banqueting House, where a window had been removed to make a door. From there, he stepped onto the scaffold... The king was swiftly beheaded. The death was met not with cheers, but with groans. The ghastly event over, the troops quickly moved to disperse the crowd. Whitehall had just seen its most famous and horrific moment.'

'Elizabeth I made Whitehall Palace her principal residence for forty-four years. Her residency was the longest for a monarch in the palace's history, and it was left to Elizabeth to complete the building work started by her father, Henry VIII, freeing it from scaffolding. However, Elizabeth made very few architectural changes and her father's major building projects were never to be repeated.'