St. James's Palace

A small but interesting palace in Kensington Park
Beautifully set with easy explanation. Charming rooms showing the live style of a young Queen Victoria & previous home to Queen Mary & William of Orange. There were lovely Royal Family photographs.
A better view of the Princess Diana Memorial than next to the sunken gardens.

St James’s Palace is probably one of the most overlooked of the royal palaces, and this is due to a number of reasons: no one from the royal family lives there permanently; it is generally not open to visitors; and it just doesn’t have the ‘grandeur’ that other royal residences have, such as the likes of nearby Buckingham Palace, or Kensington Palace, or Windsor Castle or Balmoral. Further, from a visual point of view, it’s quite bland and almost unattractive - a pile of red brick with a few archers turrets and chimney pots.

But aficionados of royalty should at least take a peak at its exteriors. It’s the most senior of the royal palaces. It was built largely between 1531 and 1536 by Henry VIII, and much of the original red-brick building he had erected still survives today, including the gatehouse, some turrets and some surviving Tudor rooms in the State apartments. It was built on the site of a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less from which it takes its name. The palace was popular between the Tudor and Georgian times, until Queen Victoria moved to Buckingham Palace in 1837.

And whilst no royals permanently reside there (some use the state apartments as London residences from time to time), it holds an important place in royalty as it is technically regarded as the official residence of the sovereign, though the current monarch lives just across the way. It is the headquarters of the royal court (the Court of St James’s) and of a number of royal organisations. The palace hosts the receptions for the many charities associated with members of the Royal Family, and is the home to ceremonies relating to the Diplomatic Corps.

The main entrance, the North Gatehouse, is its grandest part, and is located towards the western end of Pall Mall. You will see its two crenellated towers (if you can call them that), with an unusual clock in-between them. Check out the boot-scrapers by the various doors, to take the mud off the shoes of the nobility before sealed pavements became de rigueur. Around the corner in Marlborough Road you’ll be able overlook the courtyards of the palace.

If you are exploring Royal London, you should include it in your itinerary. And if you are walking The Mall to or from a visit to Buckingham Palace, it’s an easy diversion along Marlborough Road.

If you would like to see the change of guards at the Buckingham palace, its going to be so difficult to view owing to the thousands who line up by the gates. A better option is to go to St.James palace from where the band starts marching. There is hardly any crowd and you can see them from 10 feet away. This palace serves as the office of the Queen.

We called here for a presentation. All the staff and facilities were absolutely lovely.
A great and special part of our nations history.

Great place to catch the changing of guards instead of buckingham palace. Buckingham palace is full of tourists, but there aren't many people at st James palace and you get to see it up close!

St. James palace is nothing spectacular to see but is the older palace built under Henry the eighth. Well worth 10 minutes just to see it

Sadly, this historical palace built by Henry VIII is no longer open to the general public. We were also not present for the changing of the guards. We could only caught a glimpse of the palace through a side gated courtyard. There are apparently still members of the Royal family who still have residence there and the Palace is still used for formal official receptions etc. We can only imagine how grand it must have been in this stately Tudor residence and the surrounding gardens.

We followed Rick Steves’ advice and stood on the sidewalk across from the courtyard to walk with the guards from this palace to Buckingham. We visited on a Sunday so we saw the horse guard change first at 10 then walked here to see the guards come out, get inspected, and march with the band down the mall towards Buckingham. Way better than fighting the crowds and there’s no gate to peer through.

What a wonderful experience. And instead of standing with so many people infron of Buckingham palace you can see part of the ceremony preparations and it is not less than fabulous! Find the timetable and the routes at the net.

Walked around the palace with our guide on a London Ghost Walk and learned a lot about its history, the guards (with the bearskin hats) who are there 24/7, and the ghosts who occasionally show themselves here!