Henry VIII’s Wine Cellar

In cities as old as London, history is often buried beneath our feet. This is certainly true about the lost Palace of Whitehall, where King Henry VIII married two of his wives and took his last breath. Today, only a few sections of this palace remain, with perhaps the most hidden being sheltered in a very unlikely place: underneath the Ministry of Defence Main Building.

Once the largest palace in Europe, the Palace of Whitehall spanned over 23 acres, surpassing even Versailles and the Vatican. With more 1500 rooms, it served as the main residence of the English monarchy between 1529 and 1698, when it was almost entirely consumed by fire. The only major part of the palace that survived is the Banqueting House, famously the place where King Charles I was executed. However, other fragments of the former palace have been incorporated into later buildings, including what is commonly known as the Henry VIII Wine Cellar.

Before it became part of the Palace of Whitehall, the structure now nestled underneath the MoD was part of the Archbishop of York’s London residence. It was greatly expanded by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and later by Henry VIII in 1529, who acquired it by stripping Wolsey of his titles following the Cardinal’s failure to secure an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

The Wine Cellar adjoined Wolsey’s Great Hall and may have been altered by Henry VIII. It consists of 10 vaulted bays with four octagonal pillars. The interior and exterior are made of stone, though the outer walls visible today have mostly been refaced with 18th and 19th century brick. The stillages along the inner walls, originally used to support wine barrels, have been partly restored.

In 1698, a fire destroyed much of Whitehall Palace. Several attempts were made over the centuries to preserve what remained of the Wine Cellar, which stayed above ground until construction for today’s Ministry of Defence Main Building resumed after World War II. At that point, the cellar’s position interfered with the desired location of the new building and plans to develop what is now Horse Guards Avenue. Rather than destroy the Wine Cellar or move it elsewhere, a bold decision was made to move it underground.

To do so, the Cellar was wrapped in layers of concrete, steel, and brick, then set upon mahogany cushions, carriage rails, and steel rollers before being moved 40 feet to the side onto a steel frame; a 20-foot hole was dug where the building once stood; the Tudor structure was then lowered on screw jacks and moved back 33 feet to its current location. All this without damaging the original structure.

Today, the Wine Cellar serves as a function room for Ministry of Defence employees and can be visited by invitation. The underground space has been thoughtfully designed as a museum about Whitehall Palace, and it contains well-researched information panels, maps, and an interactive exhibit illustrating the scale of the former palace in relation to the buildings currently seen in the Whitehall area.