Cockpit-in-Court

The Cockpit-in-Court (also known as the Royal Cockpit) was an early theatre in London, located at the rear of the Palace of Whitehall, next to St James's Park, now the site of 70 Whitehall, in Westminster.

The structure was originally built by Henry VIII, after he had acquired Cardinal Wolsey's "York Place" to the north of the Palace of Westminster, following the Cardinal's downfall of in 1529. It was one of a number of new pleasure buildings constructed for King Henry's entertainment, including a real tennis court, a bowling alley, and a tiltyard, and was used as an actual cockpit; that is, an area for staging cockfighting. Thus enlarged, the Palace of Whitehall became the main London residence of the Tudor and Stuart Kings of England, and the Palace of Westminster was relegated to ceremonial and administrative purposes only.^[1]

The Cockpit ceased to be used for cockfighting in Tudor times, and was used instead as a private theatre and as chambers for members of the Royal Household. It was redesigned in 1629 for Charles I by Inigo Jones as a private venue for staging court masques. It was the second cockpit that Jones had redesigned as a theatre, the other being the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane, which was renovated after a fire in 1617.

After the Interregnum, the Cockpit returned to use under Charles II, and was refitted in 1662. A new dressing room was added for female players, whose presence onstage was a recent theatrical innovation; its walls were decorated with green baize, one possible origin of the theatrical term "green room" for a dressing room.^[2] Samuel Pepys records attending several plays at the Cockpit in his diary.

In 1680, it was occupied by the Duke of Albemarle in his official capacity as Master of the Wardrobe, and later by Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu in the same capacity.

The Palace of Whitehall was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1698. One prominent structure to survive was the Banqueting House, also designed by Inigo in 1619; another, lesser, structure to survive, was the Cockpit. After the fire, William III moved his London residence to nearby St James's Palace, and the site was rebuilt to be used as government offices, and residential and commercial premises.^[1] The Cockpit was used to house government officials. It was first occupied by HM Treasury, whose offices elsewhere in the palace had been destroyed, until the Treasury moved to a new building on Horse Guards Road in 1734.^[3]

It was used by the Foreign Office in the late 1700s, after that government office had been founded at Cleveland Row, St James's but before it moved to Downing Street.^[4] Next, it was used by the Privy Council as a council chamber, for judicial purposes. It continued to be used by the Privy Council after a new chamber was built for them in 1827. The current building on the site, at 70 Whitehall, is used by the Cabinet Office. The reconstructed "Cockpit Passage" in 70 Whitehall runs along the edge of the old tennis courts and into Kent's Treasury, built on the site of the original cockpit lodgings. The minstrel's gallery on the ground floor is currently decorated with pictures of fighting cocks and a model of the old Whitehall palace.

It should not be confused with "Cockpit Steps" nearby in St James Park, which lead up from Birdcage Walk past the site of a royal cockpit in Old Queen Street.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Location - Whitehall, Ministry of Defence.
2. ^ Alternative Theatres.
3. ^ The Treasury Building - 1 Horse Guards Road, HM Treasury.
4. ^ FCO Buildings: Historical Background, Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

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