Overview

The house is the only remaining publicly accessible part of the Palace of Whitehall. Charles I was beheaded just outside in 1649. It contains the Banqueting Hall on the 1st floor, with some magnificent Rubens paintings on the ceiling. It is located opposite Horseguards Parade with quite an inconspicuous door, by the corner with Horesguards Avenue. Admission charge. There is +1 step at the entrance the ticket desk there are then +17+6 to get up to the Hall. A route to bypass the steps through an adjacent office building (the Royal United Services Institute) can be made available for chair users and disabled walkers. The lift is small, with (D75 W100 L85). Only a small chair can get in, and you may need to take the footplates off. The lift is normally available Mon-Fri if requested 24 hours in advance. Check on Tel: 020 3166-6155/6152 - especially if you plan to visit on a Saturday or are attending a private function. For more details see Access in London www.accessinlondon.org.

Transport & Parking

Parking is difficult especially during the day. There are several bus routes up and down Whitehall. The nearest accessible tube station is Westminster, some 1 km away. See the overall description in the Getting around chapter in Access in London www.accessinlondon.org.

Access

As described above, there are +1+17+6 steps to get up to the Hall. You may be able to bypass these using a lift in an adjacent building, but the lift is small, and only available during office hours. Once in the Hall, there are seats around the walls, and mirrors for looking at some of the detail on the ceiling.

Toilets

After the +1 step to the ticket desk and small shop, an area called the undercroft is -3 from the entrance, but there is a ramped bypass behind the door to the left of the steps. There's a wheelchair toilet (D80 ST80+) at the bottom of the ramp, which could be accessed even if you are not visiting the Hall upstairs.

Staff

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Although quite difficult to get to, it's an unusual 'sight', and worth a little effort to overcome the barriers.