St James's Palace

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St James's Palace

Middlesex


The north gatehouse, of St James's Palace
Type: Royal palace
Location
Grid reference: TQ29358005
Location: 51°30’17"N, 0°8’16"W
City: Westminster
History
Address: Pall Mall
For: King Henry VIII
Royal palace
Tudor
Information

St James's Palace stands on Pall Mall in the City of Westminster in Middlesex. It is officially the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom, and gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court. Although no longer the principal residence of the monarch, it is the ceremonial meeting place of the Accession Council, the office of the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, and the London residence of several minor members of the royal family.

The palace is a Grade I Listed Building.[1]

The palace was built by order of Henry VIII in the 1530s on the site of a leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less, the palace was secondary in importance to the Palace of Whitehall for most Tudor and Stuart monarchs. The palace increased in importance during the reigns of the early Hanoverian monarchs, but was displaced by Buckingham Palace in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After decades of being used increasingly for only formal occasions, the move was formalised by Queen Victoria in 1837.

Today the palace houses a number of official offices, societies and collections, and all ambassadors to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the Court of St James's. The palace's Chapel Royal is still used for functions of the royal family.

Mainly built between 1531 and 1536 in red-brick, the palace's architecture is primarily Tudor in style. A fire in 1809 destroyed parts of the structure, including the monarch's private apartments, which were never replaced. Some 17th-century interiors survive, but most were remodelled in the 19th century.

History

Tudors

The palace was commissioned by Henry VIII on the site of a former leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less. The new palace, secondary in the king's interest to Henry's Whitehall Palace, was constructed between 1531 and 1536 as a smaller residence to escape formal court life.[2] Much smaller than the nearby Whitehall, St James's was arranged around a number of courtyards, including the Colour Court, the Ambassador's Court and the Friary Court. The most recognisable feature is the north gatehouse; constructed with four storeys, the gatehouse has two crenellated flanking octagonal towers at its corners, and a central clock dominating the uppermost floor and gable; the clock is a later addition and dates from 1731.[3] It is decorated with the initials H.A. for Henry and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry constructed the palace in red brick, with detail picked out in darker brick.[2]

The palace was remodelled in 1544, with ceilings painted by Hans Holbein and was described as a "pleasant royal house".[4] Two of Henry VIII's children died at Saint James's, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset and Queen Mary I.[5][6] Elizabeth I often resided at the palace, and is said to have spent the night there while waiting for the Spanish Armada to sail up the Channel.[4]

Stuarts

St James's Palace (left) and The Mall, 1715

Prince Henry, the son of King James VI and I and Anne of Denmark lived at St James's Palace until his death in 1612. The gardens were improved for him by Alphonsus Fowle.[7] A riding school, one of the first in England, was built for Henry at St James's Palace between 1607 and 1609, and then a library with sculptural decoration by Maximilian Colt. Henry also installed a menagerie with pet birds including a pair of ostriches.[8]

King Charles II was born at the palace on 29 May 1630. His brother, who later succeded as James II, was born at the palace on 14 October 1633.[9] In 1638, Charles I gave the palace to Marie de Medici, the mother of Henrietta Maria. Marie remained in the palace for three years, but the residence of a Roman Catholic former queen of France proved unpopular with parliament and she was soon asked to leave for Cologne. Charles spent his final night at St James's before his execution. Oliver Cromwell then took it over, and turned it into barracks during the Commonwealth period.

The palace was restored by Charles II after his restoration to the throne. Queen Mary II and Queen Anne, his nieces, were both born at the palace. King Charles laid St James's Park out at the same time as he restored the palace. It became the principal residence of the monarch in London in 1698, during the reign of William III and Mary II after Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire, and became the administrative centre of the monarchy, a role it retains.

Hanoverians

The Chapel Royal, St James's Palace

The first two monarchs of the House of Hanover used St James's Palace as their principal London residence. George I and George II both housed their mistresses, the Duchess of Kendal and the Countess of Suffolk respectively, at the palace. In 1757, George II donated the Palace library to the British Museum;[10] this gift was the first part of what later became the Royal Collection.[11]

George III found St. James's unsuitable. The Tudor palace was regarded as uncomfortable and also as not affording its residents enough privacy, or the space to withdraw from the court into family life. In 1762, shortly after his wedding, George purchased Buckingham House, the predecessor to Buckingham Palace, for his queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.[12] In 1809, a fire destroyed part of St James's Palace, including the monarch's private apartments at the south-east corner.[13] These apartments were not replaced, leaving the Queen's Chapel isolated from the rest of the palace by an open area, where Marlborough Road now runs between the two buildings.[14] The royal family began spending the majority of their time at Buckingham House, with St James's used for only formal occasions; thrice-weekly levées and public audiences were still held there. In the late 18th century, George III refurbished the state apartments but neglected the living quarters.[15] Queen Victoria formalised the move in 1837, ending the status of St James's as the primary residence of the monarch; it became used during her reign as a venue for courts, levees and other ceremonies.[16] It was nevertheless where Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840, and where, eighteen years later, their eldest child, Princess Victoria married Prince Frederick of Prussia.

St James's Palace in 1819
North Front
North Front
North Front  
King's Presence Chamber
King's Presence Chamber
King's Presence Chamber  
Queen's Levée Room
Queen's Levée Room
Queen's Levée Room  
Guard Chamber
Guard Chamber
Guard Chamber  
From a series of paintings by Charles Wild, as published in W.H. Pyne (1819), The History of the Royal Residences

20th century

In 1912-13, St James's Palace was the venue for the international conference that arranged the treaty between the Balkan states and the Ottoman Empire following the two Balkan Wars.[16] Edward VIII when Prince of Wales used the palace as his 'town' residence until he moved into Marlborough House and George VI as Duke of York resided there before his marriage in 1923.[16] The Second Round Table Conference (September – December 1931), pertaining to Indian independence, was held at the palace. On 12 June 1941, Representatives of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and of the exiled governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, as well as General de Gaulle of France, met and signed the Declaration of St James's Palace which was the first of six treaties signed that established the United Nations and composed the Charter of the United Nations.[17]

Proclamation Gallery

The Proclamation Gallery

The Proclamation Gallery is a part of St James's Palace, and it is used after the death of a reigning monarch. The Accession Council meets to declare the new monarch from the deceased monarch's line. Once the monarch has made a sacred oath to the council, the Garter King of Arms steps onto the Proclamation Gallery, which overlooks Friary Court to proclaim the new monarch.[18][19]

Today

200pxLFriary Court at St James's Palace

St James's Palace is still a working palace, and the Royal Court is still formally based there, despite the monarch residing elsewhere. It is also the London residence of Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Alexandra. The palace is used to host official receptions, such as those of visiting heads of state, and charities of which members of the royal family are patrons. It forms part of a sprawling complex of buildings housing Court offices and officials' apartments. The immediate palace complex includes York House, the former home of the Prince of Wales and his sons, Princes William and Henry. Lancaster House, located next door, is used by HM Government for official receptions, and the nearby Clarence House, the former home of the Queen Mother, is now the residence of the Prince of Wales.[5] The palace also served as the official residence of Princess Eugenie until April 2018.[20]

The nearby Queen's Chapel, built by Inigo Jones, adjoins St James's Palace. While the Queen's Chapel is open to the public at selected times, the Chapel Royal in the palace is not accessible to the public. They both remain active places of worship.[5]

The offices of the Royal Collection Department, the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, the Chapel Royal, the Gentlemen at Arms, the Yeomen of the Guard and the Queen's Watermen are all housed at St James's Palace. 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.[5]

On 1 June 2007 the palace, Clarence House and other buildings within its curtilage (other than public pavement on Marlborough Road) were designated as a protected site for the purposes of Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, making it a specific criminal offence for a person to trespass into the site.[21]

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about St James's Palace)

References

  1. ↑ National Heritage List 1264851: St James's Palace etc (Grade I listing)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wagner, John; Walters Schmid, Susan (2011). Encyclopedia of Tudor England. California, USA: ABC Clio. pp. 1054–1055. ISBN 978-1598842999. 
  3. ↑ {{brithist|45186|@British History online Chapter IX: St James's Palace] Access date 15 October 2014
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Perry, Maria (1999). The Word of a Prince: A Life of Elizabeth I from Contemporary Documents. Suffolk: Boydell Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0851156330. https://books.google.com/books?id=ifnFBjfo1UIC. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 St James's Palace: The Royal Household
  6. ↑ Wheatley, Henry; Cunningham, Peter (2011). London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 285–287. ISBN 978-1108028073. https://books.google.com/books?id=9KPxH48qnZwC. 
  7. ↑ Edgar Shepperd, Memorials of St. James's Palace, vol. 1 (London, 1904), pp. 66-7.
  8. ↑ Roy Strong, Henry Prince of Wales and England's Lost Renaissance (London, 1986), pp. 64, 210-12.
  9. ↑ Miller, 1
  10. ↑ Warner, George (1912). Queen Mary's Psalter Miniatures and Drawings by an English Artist of the 14th Century Reproduced from Royal Ms. 2 B. Vii in the British Museum. London: Britism Museum. p. n. http://bestiary.ca/etexts/warner1912/queen%20mary%20psalter%20-%20introduction%20-%20warner.pdf. 
  11. ↑ "Books and Manuscripts". Royal Collection. http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=21. 
  12. ↑ Nash, Roy (1980). Buckingham Palace: The Place and the People. London: Macdonald Futura. ISBN 978-0354045292. https://archive.org/details/buckinghampalace0000nash. 
  13. ↑ "Royal Residences: St James's Palace". 2015-11-23. https://www.royal.uk/royal-residences-st-jamess-palace. 
  14. ↑ "St. James' Palace: Henry VIII knocked down a hospital for women with leprosy to build another royal residence". 2018-01-09. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/01/09/st-james-palace/. 
  15. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2004). George III: America's Last King. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0300142389. https://books.google.com/books?id=AxMaCAAAQBAJ&q=st+james. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to London. London: Ward, Lock & Co Ltd.. 1928. p. 108. 
  17. ↑ "1941: The Declaration of St. James' Palace". https://www.un.org/en/sections/history-united-nations-charter/1941-declaration-st-james-palace/index.html. 
  18. ↑ Fodor's (2013-08-13) (in en). Fodor's London 2014. Fodor's Travel. ISBN 9780770432201. https://books.google.com/books?id=Xy1b2k7ce2EC&q=%22Proclamation+Gallery%22&pg=PT102. 
  19. ↑ Wilkinson, Philip (2007-01-30) (in en). The British Monarchy For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470059319. https://books.google.com/books?id=vXP9mp3C7X4C&q=%22Proclamation+Gallery%22&pg=PA338. 
  20. ↑ Perry, Simon (1 May 2018). Princess Eugenie and Her Fiancé Jack Brooksbank Just Moved Next Door to Harry and Meghan!. https://people.com/royals/princess-eugenie-jack-brooksbank-move-kensington-palace/. Retrieved 2 May 2018. 
  21. ↑ "Home Office Circular 018 / 2007 (Trespass on protected sites - sections 128–131 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005)". Home Office. 22 May 2007. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trespass-on-protected-sites-sections-128-131-of-the-serious-organised-crime-and-police-act-2005. 
  • Wolf Burchard: 'St James's Palace: George II and Queen Caroline's Principal London Residence', The Court Historian (2011), pp. 177–203.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus: 'The Buildings of England: London 6: Westminster (2003), pp 594–601


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