The Great Hall, one of the finest medieval halls in England, is the surviving part of what was once Winchester Castle which was built by William the Conqueror and was a seat of power for medieval monarchs. It is also home to the legendary King Arthur's round table, well sort of...

So let's get to King Arthur's round table first. Well it's a tabletop of course its legs having been remove long ago so it could be hung on the wall. It has been dendrochronologically dated to the 13th century (yep it's a medieval reproduction of the mythical Arthur's table) and was originally plain unpainted wood. It's a tournament table and there were many tables made in this period apparently.

It was commissioned probably in 1290 by Edward I who was a King Arthur aficionado. Henry VIII later had it painted (spot the Tudor rose in its centre) for his visit in 1516 in an attempt to symbolise that the Tudor dynasty were true descendants of King Arthur in an attempt to strengthen their claim on the throne of England. Hilarious when you consider that Arthur is a legend and his story mythical. To me it looks like a giant darts board!

The model above illustrates the extent of original castle before it was "knocked about a bit" by Cromwell and his Roundheads during the Civil War and subsequently by others for building materials and so on. All that is left today is the Great Hall (shown here with its original dormers - no longer extant), the foundations of one tower and part of the dry moat. All the rest has been redeveloped over the ages.

As was the Victorian's want in many an old building, the stained glass was "restored" by replacing it by contemporary and rather garish Gothic Revival style.

The huge statue of Queen Victoria enthroned I guess as Empress Of India looms over one obscure corner of the hall. The picture above does not do it any justice as I failed to include anything to give it a scale of reference so it could be any size. It must have been 20 feet high if it was an inch but you will have to take my word for it.

The steel doors above were inserted into the bottom end of the Hall where it abuts onto the later, newer, Law Courts building to commemorate the wedding of Charles and Dianna. It's amazing this lovely old building is still standing after all these centuries given all the changes that have gone on over the years around it. Well worth a visit.

All images made with my Sony RX100 VII compact camera c/w its Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-200mm (equivalent) f2.8-4.5 zoom lens.