Inigo Jones plays a key role in the history of British architecture because he travelled to Italy to study, and afterward built the first significant Classical buildings in England. He was influenced by the designs of Andrea Palladio, whose buildings he visited on the continent.

In line with Palladio’s rules, the Banqueting House has a rusticated base, a first storey with Ionic columns and pediment windows, and a second storey in the Corinthian order with garlanded swags linking the capitals. It is Jones’s first building in Portland stone, a material he is credited with having introduced to London and that Sir Christopher Wren later used for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Jones, who had already designed the Queen’s house at Greenwich, went on to complete a number of other important projects, including Covent Garden Piazza, London’s first real residential square. His work was highly influential on Neo-Classical British architects of the 18th century, including William Kent and Lord Burlington.