Until the early nineteenth century the Great Hall was the dining room and was furnished with 16 long tables (one for each Ward). Each table would provide space for two sergeants, two corporals, a drummer and 21 private soldiers. Heating was provided by an open fire in the middle of the Hall. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the Pensioners took to dining in the Wards and from the early nineteenth century all food was collected from the kitchen. The Great Hall was then used for recreation, courts martial and Army entrance examinations. It was here that the Duke of Wellington's body lay in state in 1852. As Sir Arthur Wellesley he had been arraigned in the same place before the Court of Inquiry into the Convention of Cintra in 1809. In 1955 the Hall was restored to its original purpose, and oak benches have since been replaced by chairs.