Banqueting House, Gibside in the context of Banqueting house

In English architecture, mainly from the Tudor period onwards, a banqueting house is a separate pavilion-like building reached through the gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining, especially eating. Or it may be built on the roof of a main house, as in many 16th-century prodigy houses. It may be raised for additional air or a vista, with a simple kitchen below, as at Hampton Court Palace and Wrest Park, and it may be richly decorated, but it normally contains no bedrooms, and typically a single grand room apart from any service spaces. The design is often ornamental, if not downright fanciful, and some are also follies, as in Paxton's Tower. There are usually plenty of windows, as appreciating the view was a large part of their purpose. Often they are built on a slope, so that from the front, only the door to the main room can be seen; the door to the servants' spaces underneath was hidden at the back (Wrest Park). The Banqueting House, Gibside is an example.

In the English of the period, "banquet" had two distinct meanings: firstly a grand formal celebratory meal (the usual modern sense), but also a course or light meal taken in a special place away from the main dining place, the relevant sense here (Whitehall apart). In large meals a banqueting house was most likely to be used for eating dessert, if reasonably close to the main house. Otherwise it might be used on fine days for taking tea, or any kind of drink, snack or meal.

Gibside is an estate in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located in the valley of the River Derwent on the border with County Durham, between Rowlands Gill and Burnopfield. The estate is the surviving part of a Georgian landscaped park, primarily created under the ownership of Sir George Bowes (1701–60) and designed in large part by Stephen Switzer and William Joyce.

The park contains structures designed by James Paine, including a Palladian chapel; Daniel Garrett, including a banqueting house; and William Newton, but several are now ruined shells or have been demolished. Gibside Hall, the house at the centre of the estate, dates in part from the 17th century, is Grade II* listed, but is also a shell.