Parts of the table were first discovered in geotechnical work in the 1960s and were put on display in the Jewel Tower (next to Westminster Abbey but originally lying within the Westminster Palace precinct).

The original 1960s geotechnical pit, situated under the south steps of Westminster Hall, was never fully backfilled and another fragment of the King's Table was spotted in 2005 under the steps by archaeological consultants Gifford. Further archaeological work by Museum of London Archaeology Service in April 2006 showed that numerous pieces of the King's Table had been broken up by 17th-century masons and incorporated in the foundation of a wall which ran across the width of the Hall. We now know that this grand table was made of Purbeck marble and was built as a series of vertical 'trestles', or uprights, which supported a stone table top.

The trestles were delicately carved with a gothic arch and a round column. The majestic table would have stood on a dais at the southern end of the hall for use in state banquets. The earliest known reference to the King's Table is during the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) and we know that a new piece of Purbeck marble was bought for the table top in 1307 for the coronation of his son Edward II. In an account of the coronation of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon in 1509, the chronicler Edward Hall refers to a nine-piece table, perhaps suggesting that it had nine top sections and ten uprights.

We think we have fragments from about five of these uprights and we hope to start work on an AutoCAD reconstruction. Was the table - a recognised symbol of royal power - broken up by Oliver Cromwell's men during the Commonwealth of the 1650s?.

Accounts of the rediscovery of the King's Table have appeared in The Times (16th June 2006) and British Archaeology (June/July 2006).