Description: Whitehall is the long, wide street running from Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square. As "Downing Street" is used as a synonym for the Prime Minister, so Whitehall is the domain of the civil servants who run the government’s departments. Until the 1530's York House was a palace in the hands of the Church – Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York and the son of a Norfolk butcher who became the most powerful cleric in the country owned it for a while, until he fell out with Henry VIII over the latter’s desire to annul the marriage to Katherine of Aragon. Wolsey died on his way back to London to be accused of treason (his dying words are supposed to have been "Had I but served my God as I served my King he would not have deserted me in my grey hairs"). The King confiscated the House, and renamed in Whitehall. It was re-built, added to and was huge by the time it burned down in 1699 – only the Banqueting Hall survived the blaze. The building is open to the public and is well worth a visit – not only to see the neo-classical beauty of the building but also to admire the Reubens ceiling which Charles I commissioned over the Banqueting tables. Open Monday to Sat, 10am to 5pm, not open Bank Holidays. Govt. functions can cause it to close – ring the information line on 020 7839 3787 before you visit to check it’s open.
Mid-way down Whitehall is the Cenotaph. From the Greek for "empty tomb", this white marble monument is the main UK war memorial site. On 11th November each year, the date of the Armistice in 1918 ending the First World War, Remembrance Day is held, with a 2 minute silence widely observed at 11am. The nearest Sunday to the 11th, Remembrance Sunday, is marked by a ceremony at the Cenotaph attended by the Royal Family, politicians from all the main parties, Commonwealth leaders, and thousands of soldiers who survived conflicts from the First World War to the most recent of conflicts. Poppy wreathes are laid – the poppy is the symbol of remembrance and many people wear a poppy in the week or so before the day.
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