Most guides will tell you that "Whitehall" took its name from the colour of Cardinal Wolsey's Great Hall. However when archeological excavations were undertaken in 1939 it was discovered that the gable end of the hall was decorated in a black and white chequerboard design.
[Black-and-whitehall"? - surely not, the mandarins have always recognised that real life has subtle shades of grey]
Simon Thurley has suggested that the term may not automatically refer to the ACTUAL colour of the building, but to its status.
