Banqueting Hall of Kings

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

Banqueting Hall of Kings

ABIT of Old London has come back to console Britishers for so much of it that is coming down. The Banqueting Hall of Eltham Palace is made whole again. Londoners may now seek the Palace which, though barely two miles from Grconwicli, had been so long neglected that most had forgotten its existence. Yet for 300 years it was the palace of kings. Edward the Second used Eltham as a country house, Henry the Fifth kept Christmas there, as did several other kings, but Edward the Fourth, open-handed and extravagant, was the king who rebuilt the Great Hnli, as now, again, it stands. A Noble Pair Other English sovereigns lived pleasantly at tho Palace; but Elizabeth, almost tho last to stay there, found the waters of tho moat unhealthy, and after tho Commonwealth its 153 rooms about the courtyard fell into decay. The Palace continued to fall to pieces through the reigns of tho last Stuarts and the four Ceorges, but tho Banqueting Hall survived, even as tho Banqueting Hall in Whitehall has outlasted its Palace. The two now make a noble pair, though the width of the Thames

and 10 miles of its tideway separate them. There is in London a woodcut of the Banqueting Hall as it was just 100 years ago. Below its noble hammerbeam roof are trusses of hay and a floor littered with all the refuse of a farmyard. People thereabouts knew it as King John's Barn, a name arising from some confusion between King John and a son of Edward the Second born here and called John of Eltham. By any name it was neglected by tho Commissioners of Crown Lands, who calmly awaited its last days; but now Mr. Samuel Courtauld has taken it on a 99-years lease and restored it. Open to the Public Tho Commissioners, awakened to tho fact that someone took an interest in the ancient relic, stipulated that the Banqueting Hall should bo open to the public if they wanted to see it. That is agreed and every Thursday the Londoner, his country cousins, and his American kinsmen will be able to find their forgotten treasure, and see it, as every» English sovereign from the Plantagenets to the Tudors and the Stuarts saw it, in its glory. Much as people should have rejoiced in having all tho old Palaco still flourishing, it is consoling to reflect that the Banqueting Hall was by far the noblest part of it. Its design was harmonious and elegant yet strong, as its survival witnesses. No useless ornament encumbered it, but tho architect's skill is shown in tho shape and spacing of its high Gothic windows, ranged in couples, in five spaces on each side. They resemble those of Crosby Hall. In tho north-east doorway is tho device of Edward the Fourth, the rose and the blazing sun. The Magnificent Roof Closed windows havo been reopened, and each of the clerestory windows has that kingly badge. Tho stained glass of tho oriel windows embodies the armorial coats and badges of other kings who lived and banqueted hero. But the principal work of interior restoration has been the overhauling of the magnificent beamed roof. Most of the original timber remained. Tho oaken screen at the east end has been brought back, and the Banqueting Hall is now as it was when the "King and Queen, their lords and ladies, made merry here, and after the dancing was done tho banquet was served in 200 dishes." Old Holinshed, who thus records the feast, would have been glad to see the Hall come to its own again.