Whitehall: Places of History and State Spaces

Under King Henry VIII a Tudor court and executive council was established in 1530 at Whitehall Palace in London. The later Stuart court of King James I demonstrated a renewed belief in the Divine Right of Kings. By the end of the century, James I’s dynastic intentions took a different course when King William III and Queen Mary II became a constitutional monarchy. The new Stuart vision was less about God and more about expanding the nation. When Whitehall Palace burned down the Stuart court never returned. In its place a new type of state emerged at Whitehall which was no longer tied to the idea of monarchy. Further major developments were underway in the opening decade of the eighteenth century through the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The constant in these events was Whitehall which by the nineteenth century was at the nexus of a global Empire. What ran Whitehall was the powerful bureaucracy of the Civil Service that continues to be run by its permanent and non-political civil servants. Post-Empire, and despite Britain’s changing fortunes, an imperial rhetoric continued to pervade the spaces of Whitehall. When things changed was during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. The street action opened the debate concerning Britain and its history, and raised the questions: does this history need to be changed, can it be changed, and should it be changed?