St James's Palace

City of Westminster, United Kingdom

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

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St James's Palace, built by Henry VIII between 1531 and 1536 in the City of Westminster, is London's most senior royal palace, constructed in red brick on the site of a former leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less. Originally designed in Tudor style as a secondary residence and hunting lodge, it gained administrative prominence after the Palace of Whitehall burned down and rose in importance under the Hanoverian monarchs, though it was gradually displaced by Buckingham Palace from the early nineteenth century onward. The palace's significance shifted decisively toward ceremonial functions following Queen Victoria's formal move in 1837. Though a 1809 fire destroyed the monarch's private apartments—which were never rebuilt—some seventeenth-century interiors survive alongside nineteenth-century remodeling. The Queen's Chapel, added in the 1620s, and Clarence House, built on palace grounds in the 1820s, remain active features. Today the palace serves as the ceremonial meeting place of the Accession Council, houses royal offices and collections, and continues to host official receptions and functions of the British royal family.

Movement

Brick Gothic

Built: 1533
Type: palace
Heritage: Grade I listed building
Place: City of Westminster, United Kingdom

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Location

51.50472, -0.13778