Video Transcript

Westminster Hall in 1099

Voiceover: Westminster Hall was built by William Rufus in the 1090s. This famous hall has served different purposes over the centuries, and the King's High Table, set at the southern end on a raised dais, was the focal point. It was where kings and queens were crowned, where they hosted grand feasts, and, over time, where they sat to dispense the law.

At window-level, nearly twenty feet from the floor, an arcaded walkway ran all the way round the hall, seen here to the left. The arcade probably served a number of different purposes. It allowed light from the windows to pass through the thick wall, and also served as an architectural feature to relieve the plainness of the large wall surface. Woven hangings would have been draped from the arcade for special occasions.

Some think that the roof of the early hall was supported by twenty-four oak posts, possibly in two rows of twelve. Archaeological investigations beneath the floor in the hall today, however, have failed to find a reliable answer as to how this early roof was spanned. Some people have suggested that the early roof, like the later roof you see today, was able to support itself without wooden posts. At 239 feet long, and 67 feet wide, this massive hall probably represented the largest hall in Europe of its time. (Voiceover ends)