Adventure #6

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Whitehall and Parliament Square:   If you start this adventure from Trafalgar Square, you can walk down Whitehall (look for Charles I's statue on horseback to point you in the right direction) past important sites past and present.   If you start this adventure from Westminster tube station, you can see Parliament Square first and then explore Whitehall going towards Trafalgar Square.

Working from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square, you'll find the Horse Guards on your right.  As at Buckingham Palace, there is a Changing of the Guard here on a regular basis, daily from May to July and on alternate days the rest of the year. Great photo op for you and one of the mounted Guards.

Looking across the street, you'll see the Banqueting House, all that remains of Whitehall Palace.  Architect Inigo Jones fashioned this structure for James I and it was finished in 1622.  James's son, Charles I, commissioned Peter Paul Rubens to add ceiling paintings celebrating his father's life and wise government.  These were completed in 1636.  Alas, Charles I had another association with the Banqueting House... on January 30, 1649, he stepped out from a second story window onto a scaffold erected for the purpose and was executed for high treason.  From this date until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, the United Kingdom had no monarch. 

The Banqueting House is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  £4.00 for adults, £3.00 for over 60.

While we're here at what remains of Whitehall Palace, this was also the site of the original Scotland Yard.  Scotland Yard was just that, in the first place, the part of Whitehall Palace where Scottish dignitaries were housed.  In the nineteenth century, it became the locale for the first home of the Metropolitan Police headquarters.

Progressing along Whitehall, the large Ministry of Defense will be on your left and you will soon come to a set of black wrought iron gates (with police guard) that mark the entrance to Downing Street.  You can see the entrance to #10, home of the Prime Minister, from here, but you can go no further.

A little further on, stop and take a look at the Cenotaph.  This is a monument to the British who have given their lives for their country while in military service.  Any military person, active or retired, passing this monument will salute it.

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