Henry VIII's hunting lodge still anchors Britain's royal court
Every foreign ambassador sent to Britain is formally accredited to the Court of St James's, named after a palace no monarch has lived in since the 1830s. It started as Henry VIII's red-brick hunting retreat on the site of a leper hospital, and it still carries his initials entwined with Anne Boleyn's.
Henry VIII had the palace built between 1531 and 1536 on isolated ground once occupied by a hospital for lepers dedicated to Saint James the Less. It was a modest escape from formal court life beside his freshly enclosed deer park, now St James's Park, and always ranked below the vast Palace of Whitehall. The Tudor brickwork, arranged around four courtyards, is fronted by a four-storey gatehouse with octagonal towers; its clock came much later, in 1731. Hans Holbein painted ceilings during a remodelling in 1544.
Royal lives and deaths crowd its history. Mary I died there, and Elizabeth I is said to have slept at the palace while awaiting the Spanish Armada. Prince Henry, eldest son of James I, kept a menagerie there, ostriches included, and had one of England's first riding schools built between 1607 and 1609. Charles II and James II were both born within its walls, and their father Charles I spent his last night there before his execution. Oliver Cromwell then turned it into barracks.
Fire elevated it. After Whitehall burned in 1698, St James's became the monarch's main London residence and administrative hub, and the first two Hanoverian kings lived there, each lodging a mistress on site. George II gave its library to the British Museum in 1757. George III, wanting more privacy, bought Buckingham House in 1762, and a blaze in 1809 destroyed the royal private apartments for good. Queen Victoria made the switch to Buckingham Palace official in 1837.
The palace kept a diplomatic role. It hosted the 1912–1913 conference after the Balkan Wars and a 1931 Round Table Conference on Indian independence. Today it houses the Accession Council's ceremonial meetings, the Chapel Royal, official receptions and London homes for several royals.
Source: St James's Palace
