Banqueting House

The Banqueting House is one of London's most quietly dramatic buildings. Completed in 1622, it was designed by Inigo Jones, the architect who introduced Palladian style to England, a approach rooted in the clean, harmonious principles of ancient Rome and popularized by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.

Step inside and the ceiling stops you in your tracks. Nine vast canvases painted by Peter Paul Rubens, the Flemish master, fill the entire ceiling with swirling figures and golden light. They were commissioned by King Charles I to celebrate his father, James I, depicting him ascending to heaven in divine glory. The message was deliberate: kings ruled by God's grace, and nobody should forget it.

The bitter irony is that Charles I stepped through a window of this very building on 30 January 1649 to face the executioner's block, just outside. His execution marked the end of the English monarchy for over a decade, replaced by a republic led by the soldier-politician Oliver Cromwell.

A bronze equestrian statue of Charles I stands nearby today, watching over the city he once ruled. He finally got a good view, and this time nobody can remove him.