London - St James's Palace

Not far away from Buckingham Palace is the older St James's Palace, part of a group of buildings which includes Clarence House and Lancaster House. The palace contains a number of "grace and favor" apartments occupied by royal pensioners. To the southeast, beyond the magnificent avenue of the Mall, is St James's Park; to the southwest of the palace is Green Park.

In spite of later destruction and alteration, the palace still offers a fine example of brick-built Tudor architecture. It takes its name from a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less which stood here from the 12th century until 1532. The old hospital was pulled down by Henry VIII and replaced by a palace designed by Holbein, in which Charles II, James II, Mary II, Anne and George IV were born. After the burning down of the old palace of Whitehall in 1699 St James's Palace became the official residence of the monarch until it gave place to Buckingham Palace; foreign ambassadors are still accredited to the "court of St James's". The main relic of the Tudor palace is the Gatehouse or Clock Tower guarded by sentries, in St James's Street, which leads into the Color Court, with a 17th century colonnade.

The palace has two chapels. In the Ambassadors' Court (to the west of the Gatehouse) is the entrance to the Chapel Royal, built in 1532 but with much later alteration. Visitors are admitted to the services held here at 8:30 am and 11:15 am on Sundays, from Oct. to Palm Sunday. The fine paintings on the coffered ceiling are attributed to Holbein. Other notable features are the royal pew, the 17th century paneling and the richly ornamented roof. In this chapel were celebrated the marriages of William and Mary (1677), Queen Anne (1683), George IV (1795), Victoria (1840) and George V (1893).

The other chapel, the Queen's Chapel, is in Marlborough Street.

On the north side of the Ambassadors' Court stands York House, which was occupied in 1915-16 by Lord Kitchener and from 1919 to 1930 by the Prince of Wales, later Duke of Windsor; it is now the residence of the Duke of Gloucester.

St James's Palace is also the headquarters of the Queen's bodyguard, consisting of the Yeoman of the Guard and the Honorable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms. The Yeomen of the Guard, a corps established by Henry VII in 1485, are popularly known as Beefeaters (probably a corruption of the French "Buffetiers du Roi"). The Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, founded in 1509 by Henry VIII, is made up of distinguished army officers under a captain appointed by the government of the day.