St James’s Palace was built by Henry VIII as the residence of the heir to the throne, a function it retained until 1702 when Queen Anne made it into the principal London house of the monarchy.
In common with many of the lesser houses built by Henry, St James’s was already a substantial comfortable manor house, once a leper hospital, but granted to Eton College by Henry VI as the London residence of their provost.
The Royal Nursery
A leper hospital and a royal nursery house had one vital thing in common. Isolation. Infant mortality was no respecter of wealth and class and royal children were thus kept well away from sources of infection. Throughout the sixteenth century and up to the Restoration St James’s Palace was maintained in isolation entirely in St James’s Park, its forbidding exterior with no ground floor windows and only a gatehouse to the outside world.
The first resident of St James’s seems to have been Henry Fitzroy, the Duke of Richmond, Henry’s bastard son who died there in 1536. By the time Henry’s legitimate heir, Edward VI, was born in 1537 a fabulous new nursery wing had been built for him at Hampton Court, and his early years were largely spent there. But on the death of Henry VIII Prince Edward could be found at St James’s.
The palace that was started in 1532 was probably stopped around 1535-6 after the execution of Anne Boleyn when a major re-think took place. There was an outer entrance court with a chapel. There were two suites of lodgings round the second court meeting on the south front. These were built anticipating either the Prince of Wales’s future marriage or in the interim as a home for the second in line to the throne. In both suites the usual rooms are there in the order of the early 1540s: guard chamber, presence chamber, privy chamber, withdrawing chamber and bedroom. Beyond this were four rooms in the privy lodgings. The second phase of building provided a three-sided long gallery round a third courtyard.
After Henry’s death the palace was used as a minor residence, occasionally occupied under childless Mary and Elizabeth but came back into use again with James I in 1603. The house was granted to the ten-year-old Henry Prince of Wales as his principal residence and he proceeded to make some modest improvements. The privy gallery was panelled in fashionable Jacobean panelling with pilasters and hung with paintings and that the room at its end was fitted up as a spectacular library.
Otherwise the state apartments remained unchanged, the principal set occupied by Henry the subsidiary set by his brother Charles. In 1614, after the death of Henry, Prince Charles moved into his brother’s lodgings as Prince of Wales and principal resident of the house.
Inigo Jones’s Chapel
Charles’s tenure of St James’s is notable for the construction of Inigo Jones’s chapel. By the marriage treaty between James I and the Spanish the infanta was to have both a private Roman Catholic chapel and a larger one that could be used by her attendants. Inigo Jones’s chapel was connected to the palace on its east side at the northern corner of the second court. From both the Queen’s presence chamber and the privy gallery access was easy via two anterooms that led to the queen’s closet overlooking the altar in the manner of the Tudor chapels. A large stair linked the closet and the body of the chapel.
At the Restoration St James’s stepped back into the spotlight. After the arrival of Catharine of Braganza in 1662 the Duke and Duchess moved their principal residence for Whitehall to St James’s. The two suites of apartments were rapidly transformed for the Duke and Duchess of York. They both were given new bedchambers with an alcove for their beds and their rooms were redecorated and improved.
The Catholic chapel was restored and refurbished in 1662 and a friary built to its east. A small domed eastern extension was constructed for the friars to say their offices in. This chapel played a leading role in the events of Charles’s reign. After a fire in the friary in 1681-2 Wren and Girinling Gibbons transformed the interior of the chapel into the most catholic interior to have been seen in England to that date.
From Summer Residence to the Official Seat of the Monarchy
St James’s was the normal summer residence of the Duke and Duchess and their children, removing there from Whitehall in May or June and staying until October. In 1685 Queen Mary of Modena was formally granted St James’s as her own palace and she shifted her lodgings into the queen’s side and the Duke moved his into the Duchesses.
In 1689 William III decreed that the queen’s household and ladies should have lodgings at St James’s but on the death of Mary in 1694 Princess Anne, now firmly in the frame as heir, moved in. In 1698 with the burning of Whitehall William III began to make use of the drawing room and the Tudor chapel which was altered for his use. But what happened on his death in 1702 is that St James’s became the principal royal palace of the realm. The royal wardrobe was instructed to strip Kensington of furnishings to bring St James’s up to standard. The state bed for instance came from there. £5,000 was set aside to spend on improvements. The two most important additions were a drawing room and a council chamber, both built on the south front.
George I, II and III all used St. James’s as their principal residence when in London. No significant alterations were made, but George III acquired Buckingham House as residence for his queen giving up Somerset House to the government. This started the process whereby royal life was split between Buckingham House and St. James’s.
Under the Georges there were once again Princes of Wales and because St James’s had now become the Principal residence of the sovereign they had to rent houses in the West End. As Prince of Wales George IV built himself Carlton House in the former gardens of St James’s and, when he became King, decided to convert the queen’s house (Buckingham House) into a more comfortable, and larger, private residence for himself. The state rooms at St. James’s were enlarged and redecorated at this time. Buckingham House was not occupied by a monarch until 1837 when Queen Victoria moved in. At this point St. James’s ceased to be the place where monarchs actually lived, although it retains, to this day, the distinction of being the official seat of the British Royal court and family.
St James’s Palace is currently the home of several members of the Royal Family and their household offices. It is used for Family occasions and for charity receptions for charities associated with members of the Royal Family.