At Victoria Embankment Gardens there is a curious set of stairs leading to nowhere. What are they? The Palace of Westminster (now the Houses of Parliament) was the main residence of the monarchs for well over 400 years until in 1512 the royal apartments there were destroyed by fire. At about that time Thomas Wolsey became the principal advisor to King Henry VIII. As Cardinal Wolsey, he built a magnificent riverside palace for himself at Whitehall, close to Westminster. He died in 1530 and Henry took the opportunity to appropriate Wolsey’s home as his royal palace. Whitehall remained the main royal residence for the following 160 years.

In the early 1690s Queen Mary II had a riverside terrace constructed at the palace, with stairs leading into the river from which she could board her royal barge. The stairs were not in use for long because in the same year Whitehall Palace was largely destroyed by fire and the main royal residence moved elsewhere. The position of the surviving stairs shows the extent of the Thames prior to the creation of the embankments.