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St James's

St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. The area was once part of the northwestern gardens and parks of St. James's Palace. During the Restoration in the 17th century, the area was developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the development of their gentlemen's clubs. Once part of the parish of St Martin in the Fields, much of it formed the parish of St James from 1685 to 1922. Since the Second World War the area has transitioned from residential to commercial use.

This article is about the area of central London. For the hospital, see St James's University Hospital. For other uses, see Saint James (disambiguation).

St James's is bounded to the north by Piccadilly and Mayfair, to the west by Green Park, to the south by The Mall and St. James's Park, and to the east by Haymarket.

Toponymy[edit]

The area's name is derived from the dedication of a 12th-century leper hospital to Saint James the Less.[2][3] The hospital site is now occupied by St James's Palace.[4] The area became known as "Clubland" because of the historic presence of gentlemen's clubs.[5][5]


The section of Regent Street (colloquially known as 'Lower Regent Street') that runs between Waterloo Place and Piccadilly Circus has been officially renamed 'Regent Street St James's'.

Governance[edit]

Historical[edit]

St James's was in the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields in the Liberty of Westminster. Attempts made in 1664, 1668 and 1670 to separate St James's from the parish were resisted by St Martin's vestry.[6] The building of St James's Church, Piccadilly in 1684 forced the issue, and a new parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster was created in 1685. The parish stretched from Oxford Street in the north to Pall Mall in the south.[7] It roughly corresponded to the contemporary St James's area, but extended into parts of Soho and Mayfair. Land south of Pall Mall remained in St Martin in the Fields' parish, and St James's Park was split between the parishes of St Martin and St Margaret. St James's Palace was an extra-parochial area and not part of any parish. A select vestry was created for the new parish.

Local government[edit]

For elections to Westminster City Council, the area is part of the St James's ward.[8] The ward includes Covent Garden, the Strand, Westminster and part of Mayfair. The ward elects three councillors.[9]

which retains many of its original houses but is mostly in office use. The London Library is located there.

St James's Square

an upmarket retail street best known for bespoke shirtmakers and shops offering the finest gentlemen's attire.

Jermyn Street

which contains many of London's gentlemen's clubs. It is also home to Marlborough House, the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Québec Government Office in London.[10]

Pall Mall

a narrow street which splits off from Pall Mall opposite Marlborough House and is home to the Red Lion, one of the oldest pubs in London's West End to still be in business.[11]

Crown Passage

was once the best-known centre of prostitution in London, but no trace remains of this part of its past. It contains two historic theatres: the Haymarket Theatre and Her Majesty's Theatre.

Haymarket

a pair of grand terraces of houses designed by John Nash overlooking St. James's Park.

Carlton House Terrace

which runs down from Piccadilly to St James's Palace.

St James's Street

Notable streets include:

St Alban's Street – after , 17th century politician and local landowner[12][13]

Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans

Angel Court – thought to be after a former inn of this name

[14]

Apple Tree Yard – thought to be after the apple trees formerly to be found here; formerly Angier Street[16]

[15]

Arlington Street – after , 17th century statesman and local landowner[17][18]

Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington

Babmaes Street – named after Baptist May (or Mays), trustee to local landowner ; it was formerly known as Babmay's Mews[19][20]

Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans

Bennet Street – after , 17th century statesman and local landowner[21][22]

Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington

Blue Ball Yard – after the former 18th century Blew Ball tavern here

[23]

– after Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans and Baron Jermyn of St Edmundsbury (Bury St Edmunds), 17th century politician and local landowner[24][13]

Bury Street

Carlton Gardens, Carlton Street and – after the former Carlton House, built here in 1709 for Henry Boyle, 1st Baron Carleton[25][26]

Carlton House Terrace

Catherine Wheel Yard – from the name of an inn that stood on this site until it burnt down in 1895[28]

[27]

– after the Eleanor cross at Charing, from the Old English word "cierring", referring to a bend in the River Thames[29][30]

Charing Cross

– named after Charles II, king when this street was built[29][31]

Charles II Street

Church Place – after the adjacent ; formerly Church Passage[32][33]

St James's Church, Piccadilly

Cleveland Place and Cleveland Row – after Cleveland House (now ), named for Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland who lived there in the late 17th century[34][35]

Bridgwater House

Cockspur Court and – unknown, though possibly after the cock fighting that formerly occurred here, cocks often having spurs attached to their feet during fights[36]

Cockspur Street

Crown Passage – thought to be after a former tavern of this name

[37]

and Duke of York Street – named after James II, Duke of York when the street was built and brother to Charles II, king at the time[38][31]

Duke Street, St James's

Eagle Place

– site of a former market selling hay until the 1830s[39][40]

Haymarket

St James's Market, St James's Place, , St James's Street and Little St James's Street – all from St James's Palace,[41] built on the site of the medieval St James's leper hospital which was dedicated to St James the Less, apostle and Bishop of Jerusalem,[2][3] or, according to Sheila Fairfield, writing in The Streets of London (1983), to the other apostle James, son of Zebedee[42]

St James's Square

– after Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans, 17th century politician and local landowner[12][13]

Jermyn Street

– named after Charles II, king when this street was built in the 1600s[43][31]

King Street

– built as a course for playing the game pall-mall, fashionable in the 17th century[44][45]

The Mall

Marlborough Road – after the adjacent , built for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough in 1711[46]

Marlborough House

– after the local 18th century victualler Henry Mason; it was formerly known as West Stable Yard[47][48]

Mason's Yard

Norris Street – after Godfrye Norris, local leaseholder in the 17th century[50]

[49]

Ormond Yard – after , who owned a house next to this yard in the 17th century[51][52]

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

and Pall Mall Place – laid out as a grounds for playing the game pall-mall in the 17th century[53][54]

Pall Mall

Park Place – after the nearby [55]

Green Park

Piccadilly Arcade and Piccadilly Circus – after Piccadilly Hall, home of local tailor Robert Baker in the 17th century, believed to be named after the piccadills –cut-work lace trimming used for hems or fashionable broad collars of the 16th and 17th century– which made his fortune. Circus is a British term for an older-style circular road junction; it was laid out by John Nash in 1819[56][57]

Piccadilly

Pickering Place – after William Pickering, local painter, stainer and grocer, who leased property here in the 1730s[59]

[58]

Princes Arcade – built 1929–1933, named after the former Prince's Hotel, which stood here

[32]

Princes Place

Queen's Walk – after , wife of George II, who took a strong interest in the Royal Parks[60]

Caroline of Ansbach

– made in the 1810s by John Nash and named after the Prince Regent, later George IV[61][62]

Regent Street

Rose and Crown Yard – unknown, probably after a former inn of this name

[63]

Royal Opera Arcade – originally part of an opera house theatre, built by [64][65]

John Nash

Russell Court – after the Russell family, who lived here in the 1600s[67]

[66]

Ryder Court, Ryder Street and Ryder Yard – after Richard Rider, Master Carpenter to [68]

Charles II

– after the 17th century pleasure grounds of this name which formerly lay on this site; they were closed in 1660[69][70]

Spring Gardens

Stable Yard and Stable Yard Road – as they leads to the stables of St James's Palace

[71]

Warwick House Street – formerly approached Warwick House, built in the 17th century for Sir [72][73]

Philip Warwick

– after the Battle of Waterloo which ended the Napoleonic Wars[74]

Waterloo Place

The following utilises the generally accepted boundaries of St James’s, viz. Piccadilly to the north, Haymarket and Cockspur Street to the east, The Mall to the south and Queen's Walk to the west.

Economy[edit]

St James's is a predominantly commercial area with some of the highest rents in London and, consequently, the world. The auction house Christie's is based in King Street, and the surrounding streets contain many upmarket art and antique dealers including Colnaghi, Agnew's Gallery, Moretti Fine Art, Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, Stoppenbach & Delestre Ltd, The Sladmore Gallery and S Franses Ltd.


BP is headquartered in St James's.[75] The area is home to fine wine merchants including Berry Brothers and Rudd, at number 3 St James's Street. Adjoining St James's Street is Jermyn Street, famous for tailoring. Some famous cigar retailers are at 35 St James's Street, occupied by Davidoff of London; J.J. Fox at 19 St James's Street and Dunhill at 50 Jermyn St.


Shoemaker, Wildsmith, designers of the first loafer, was located at 41 Duke Street but is now at 13 Savile Row.

List of schools in the City of Westminster

for the aristocratic nature of speculative building in the development of St James's

Townhouse (Great Britain)

Bebbington, Gillian (1972). . London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-0140-0.

London street names

Fairfield, Sheila (1983). . London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-28649-4.

The streets of London: A dictionary of the names and their origins

Griffin, J. P. (January–February 1998). . Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London. 32 (1): 72–76. PMC 9662966. PMID 9507445.

"London's medieval hospitals and the Reformation"

Mills, Anthony David (2001). . Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280106-7.

A Dictionary of London Place Names

doi

Survey of London: St James Westminster, Part 1

Walford, Edward (1878). . Old and New London. Vol. 4. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin. pp. 140–164 – via British History Online. Free access icon

"Pall Mall–Clubland"

(1867), "St. James's", Curiosities of London (2nd ed.), London: J.C. Hotten, OCLC 12878129

John Timbs

– a volume of the Survey of London which provides a very detailed architectural history of most of St James's. However a few sections of the parish of St James's fall outside the district, so they are omitted (map).

St James's Westminster, Part 1

Archived 2 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine

Map of St James's and surrounding areas

Clubland at Virtual London

Tourist Information on St James's

Area website for St James's with profiles on shops, restaurants and galleries in the area and a full events calendar

. The History of London. General interest London history website from Peter Stone

"St. James's Park – from leper hospital to royal park"