English architecture The architecture of England is the architecture of modern England and in the historic Kingdom of England. It often includes buildings created under English influence or by English architects in other parts of the world, particularly in the Engli ...

, mainly from the

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...

onwards, a banqueting house is a separate

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

-like building reached through the gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining, especially eating. Or it may be built on the roof of a main house, as in many 16th-century

prodigy house Prodigy houses are large and showy English country houses built by courtiers and other wealthy families, either "noble palaces of an awesome scale" or "proud, ambitious heaps" according to taste. The prodigy houses stretch over the period ...

s. It may be raised for additional air or a vista, with a simple kitchen below, as at Hampton Court Palace and

Wrest Park Wrest Park is a country estate located in Silsoe, Bedfordshire, England. It comprises Wrest Park, a Grade I listed country house, and Wrest Park Gardens, also Grade I listed, formal gardens surrounding the mansion. History Thomas Carew (1 ...

, and it may be richly decorated, but it normally contains no bedrooms, and typically a single grand room apart from any service spaces. The design is often ornamental, if not downright fanciful, and some are also

follies ''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fol ...

, as in

Paxton's Tower Paxton's Tower is a Neo-Gothic folly erected in honour of Lord Nelson. It is situated on the top of a hill near Llanarthney in the River Tywi valley in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is a visitor attraction that can be combined with a visit to the nea ...

. There are usually plenty of windows, as appreciating the view was a large part of their purpose. Often they are built on a slope, so that from the front, only the door to the main room can be seen; the door to the servants' spaces underneath was hidden at the back (Wrest Park). The

Banqueting House, Gibside The Banqueting House is an 18th-century building, part of the Gibside estate, near Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Its style has been described as " Gothick". A banqueting house is defined as a separate building reached through pleasure gardens fro ...

is an example. In the English of the period, "banquet" had two distinct meanings: firstly a grand formal celebratory meal (the usual modern sense), but also a course or light meal taken in a special place away from the main dining place, the relevant sense here (Whitehall apart). In large meals a banqueting house was most likely to be used for eating

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...

, if reasonably close to the main house. Otherwise it might be used on fine days for taking tea, or any kind of drink, snack or meal. The best known example, though far larger than most, is the Banqueting House on Whitehall, once part of

Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Hen ...

. This is a grand dining hall for full formal meals, and what may be called in distinction a banqueting hall. Such buildings were created in various settings, for example at

Cholmley House Cholmley House or Whitby Hall is a banqueting house In English architecture, mainly from the Tudor period onwards, a banqueting house is a separate pavilion-like building reached through the gardens from the main residence, whose use is pure ...

next to

Whitby Abbey Whitby Abbey was a 7th-century Christian monastery that later became a Benedictine abbey. The abbey church was situated overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England, a centre of the medieval Northumbrian ...

, which had been converted into a country house.Jenkins, 903-904 Most banqueting houses fitted at most twenty people, and many fewer. Its contemporary Italian equivalent was a '' casina''. File:Hardwick Hall in Doe Lea - Derbyshire.jpg,

Hardwick Hall Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is an architecturally significant country house from the Elizabethan era, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect ...

, built 1590–97, has six banqueting houses on the top of the towers, reached only across the roof leads File:Banqueting House at Hampton Court Palace.jpg, The banqueting house at Hampton Court Palace File:Wrest Park Banqueting House.jpg,

Banqueting House,

Thomas Archer Thomas Archer (1668–1743) was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. His buildings are important as the only ones by an English Baroque archit ...

, 1711

Notes

References

* Girouard, Mark, ''Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History'' 1978, Yale, Penguin etc. *

Jenkins, Simon Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...

, ''England's Thousand Best Houses'', 2003, Allen Lane, Architecture in England Elizabethan architecture Houses {{Architecture-stub

See also

Notes

References