The Royal Family and the Royal Collection Trust Instagram accounts shared captivating behind-the-scenes details from the state banquet, revealing what exactly goes into creating such a magical evening.
The feast was held at St George’s Hall, Windsor Castle, which has found itself at the centre of royal events for generations. The current hall as it stands was largely rebuilt after the great fire of 1992 and features a ceiling studded with the coats of arms of every single Knight of the Garter since the order was founded in 1348. The armoured figure on horseback at the east end of the hall is known as ‘The King’s Champion’. The Champion used to ride into the Coronation banquet held in Westminster Hall, throw his gauntlet three times and challenge anyone to deny the authority of the new sovereign.
The Hall, before it was destroyed, was built as part of Jeffry Wyatville’s modernisation of Windsor Castle in the 19th-century. ‘In creating this enormous new space, Wyatville had demolished the finest part of Charles II’s work at the castle, the old St George’s Hall and Private Chapel,’ explain experts from the Royal Collection Trust. ‘These two rooms, which lay end-to-end along the north side of the Quadrangle, had in their turn replaced the massive timber-roofed hall and chapel constructed by Edward III in the 1360s and 70s.
‘The loss of these two spectacular Baroque interiors, painted by Verrio and adorned with some of Grinling Gibbons’s finest carvings, has frequently been regretted and Wyatville himself was not in favour of throwing the two areas together, fearing that the overall length of the new room would not be in proportion to the height. However, the poor condition of the roof structure in particular convinced George IV that rebuilding was necessary; and he was in any case attracted by the idea of a new and enlarged hall to act as the secular centre of the Order of the Garter.’
