St. James's Palace is one of
London
's oldest palaces.
It is
situated in Pall
Mall
, just north of St. James's Park
. Although no sovereign has resided there for
almost two centuries, it is considered the most senior royal palace
in the UK and gives its name to the Royal Court (the "
Court of St. James's").
History
The palace was commissioned by
Henry VIII, on the site of a former
leper hospital
dedicated to
Saint James the
Less (from whom the Palace and its nearby Park take their
names); the hospital was disbanded in 1532.
The new palace,
secondary in interest to Henry's Whitehall Palace
, was constructed in the red-brick Tudor style around four courtyards: its
gatehouse (illustration) survives on the north side,
flanked by polygonal turrets with mock battlements, fitted with Georgian sash windows. It became the
principal residence of the monarch in London in 1698, during the
reign of William III and Mary II
when Whitehall
Palace was destroyed by fire, and became the
administrative centre of the monarchy (a role it still
retains). Two of Henry VIII's children died there:
Henry Fitzroy and
Mary I (Mary's heart and bowels were
buried in the palace's
Chapel Royal).
Elizabeth I was said to have spent the night there while waiting
for the Spanish Armada to sail up the channel.
Charles I slept rather less soundly --
as it was his final bed before his execution.
Oliver Cromwell then took it over, and
turned it into a barracks during the
English Commonwealth period. It was
then restored by
Charles II
(Charles I's son), who also laid out St. James's Park.
The first three
Georges used St.
James's Palace as their principal London residence even though it
was far from grand for the city palace of a major European
monarchy;
Daniel Defoe called it "low
and mean" in 1725. In 1809 a fire destroyed part of the palace,
including the monarch's private apartments at the south east
corner.
These apartments were not replaced, leaving
the Queen's
Chapel
in isolation, and Marlborough Road now runs between
the two buildings. George
III had purchased Buckingham
House the predecessor to Buckingham Palace
for his queen back in 1762,
and St. James's continued to decline in importance in the first
half of the 19th century. It increasingly came to be used
only for formal occasions such as official receptions, royal
marriages, and christenings. Queen
Victoria formalised the move
in 1837, ending St. James's status as the official residence of the
monarch. Some structures and interiors survive by Sir
Christopher Wren and
William Kent, but most was remodelled in the
nineteenth century.
William Morris
and his firm were commissioned to redecorate the Armoury and the
Tapestry Room, 1866-67.
Today
St.
James's Palace is still a working palace, and the Royal Court is
still formally based there foreign ambassadors are still accredited
to the Court of St. James's,
even though they are received by the monarch at Buckingham
Palace. It is also the London residence of the
Princess Royal and
Princess
Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy. The Palace forms part of
a sprawling complex of buildings housing Court offices and
officials' apartments.
The complex includes York
House
, the former home of the Prince of Wales and his sons, the
Princes William and Harry, Lancaster House
, which is used by HM
Government for official receptions, as well as the nearby
Clarence
House
, the home of the late Queen Mother and now the residence of
the Prince of Wales.
The
Queen's
Chapel, built by Inigo Jones,
adjoins St. James's Palace. While the Chapel is open to the
public at selected times, the palace is not accessible to the
public.
St. James's Palace is one of the four
buildings in London where guards from the Household Division can be seen (the other
three are Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Horse
Guards
).
Since the
beginning of the 2000s, the Royal Philatelic Collection has
been housed at St. James's Palace, after spending the entire 20th
century at Buckingham
Palace.
From October 2008 onwards, and officially from 6 January 2009, the
staff of Princes William and Harry moved into their own rooms in St
James's Palace and began reporting directly to the royal princes
for the first time. Until recently the brothers' duties were looked
after by Prince Charles's office, Clarence House.
References
- The uncertainty as to which James was intended is expressed in
the Survey of London ascription
(http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45186. Edward
Walford, 'St James's Palace', Old and New London Vol. 4
(1878:100-122. Date accessed: 22 February 2008.) of the hospital's
dedication to "St. James the Less, Bishop of Jerusalem"; bishop of
Jerusalem was a title of James the Just, brother of Jesus..
- Pevsner, Nikolaus. The Buildings of England: London 6:
Westminster (2003), pp 594-601
- Pevsner
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