London - Piccadilly and St James Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - Piccadilly and St James

Piccadilly Circus, the heart of the West End, is usually so relentlessly busy that it’s not a particularly pleasant place to linger, but thousands do, gathering around the endearing little monument representing the Angel of Christian Charity but persistently taken to be the God of Love, dubbed ‘Eros’. Erected in 1893 in memory of the stern philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury, nowadays it’s dwarfed by the neon-lit logos of Macdonald’s, Nescafé and Coca Cola. Progressing westwards for about a mile to Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly itself is a top-class and congested strip of extraordinary shops, world-class hotels, green space and fine architecture. To its south, St James’s is the land that time forgot, stuck in a fantasy of the English past, peddling classy airs and graces. The layout of its streets little changed since the 17th century, it has preserved a more intimate scale than Mayfair, although the grandeur of its aspirations are forcefully expressed in St James’s Square and along Pall Mall. Above all, this is the part of London that enshrines the idea of the English gentleman. Beyond is Royal London, the Mall, lovely St James’s Park and Buckingham Palace.

Sights

T 020-7734 4511 (church), T 020-7437 9419 (café), T 020-7437 7688 (market). Daily 0800-1900 (church), daily 0830-1900 (café), Tue 1000-1730 (antique market), Wed-Sat 1000-1730 (craft market). M Piccadilly Circus.

One of the most beautiful church interiors in London is on the left a few hundred yards down from Piccadilly Circus, at 197 Piccadilly. St James’s Piccadilly, known as the ‘visitors’ church’, was its architect Christopher Wren’s personal favourite. Completed in 1684, the church sustained severe bomb damage in the Second World War and needed extensive restoration. The interior retains its delightful balance and poise, best appreciated in bright daylight, and includes a spectacular limewood altar-screen carved in the 17th century by Grinling Gibbons, who may also have been responsible for the font here in which William Blake was baptized.

T 020-7300 8000. 1000-1800 Mon-Thu, Sun; 1000-2200 Fri, Sat. M Piccadilly Circus or Green Park.

Burlington House, on the opposite side of Piccadilly, has been the home since 1869 of the Royal Academy of Arts. Under the directorship of Norman Rosenthal, the Academy has determinedly cast off an increasingly fusty image by mounting popular, attention-grabbing exhibitions of contemporary British art, with titles like ‘Sensation’ and ‘Apocalypse’. Guided tours of the permanent collection, which includes works by Reynolds, Turner, Constable and Stanley Spencer, are given Tuesday-Friday at 1300 and are free (be there on time).

T 020-7499 5676, http://www.apsleyhouse.org.uk. 1100-1700 Tue-Sun. Adult £4.50, £3 concessions, free for under-18s. Guided tours on request, £30 for groups of up to 25 people. M Hyde Park Corner.

Piccadilly continues downhill to Hyde Park Corner, past the Inigo Jones-designed Devonshire Gates into Green Park. They were removed from Devonshire House, one of the grand houses that once lined the length of Piccadilly’s north side. Hyde Park Corner itself terrifies drivers and pedestrians alike.

The main reason to come here and not hurry through is a visit to Apsley House, the house that Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, bought from his brother after Waterloo. It stands on the north side of Hyde Park corner, by the entrance to Park Lane. Known as No 1 London, for being the first house in the West End on the road from Knightsbridge, it’s now The Wellington Museum, a dignified monument to the man and the post-Napoleonic era in Britain. It was restored in Louis XIV style, and refurbished throughout in its original colour scheme in 1995.

T 020-7930 1793, http://www.royalparks.gov.uk. Dawn-dusk daily. M Green Park.

Laid out by Henry VIII, the 53-acre park’s name is self-explanatory enough, kept free of formal flower beds out of respect for the lepers from the Hospital of St James’s buried beneath. More fancifully, Charles II is supposed to have picked a flower here to give to the next beautiful woman he saw. Queen Katharine was so furious that she banned flowers from the park for good. Nowadays the plane trees, crocuses, daffodils and deck chairs make it a charming spot to wile away an afternoon in the spring.

M Green Park or Piccadilly Circus.

Parallel to Piccadilly, off St James’s Street to the left, Jermyn Street sets the tone for the shops that cater for the area’s clubbable gents. At the bottom of St James’s Street is the red-brick Tudor gatehouse of St James’s Palace. Now used as offices for various Royals, the palace is closed to visitors, although the Chapel Royal inside is open for Sunday services from October until Good Friday.

27 St James’s Pl, T 020-7499 8620. Sun by guided tour only Feb-Jul, Sep-Dec 1030-1645. £6, under-16s £5. M Green Park.

Ancestral London home of Princess Diana’s family from 1755 until the 1920s, eight grand rooms are open to the public on Sundays, the highlights being the views of the garden and Green Park, the ceiling of the Dining Room and the gilded trees in the Palm Room.

M Green Park or St James’s Park.

Here you enter Toytown. This is Royal London, with its processional road, its smart soldiers on parade, and in the distance, safe in her Palace, its very own Queen. The Mall is an imposing public space, lined with trees and flagstaffs, its pink tarmac matching the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, that comes into its own for ceremonies like Trooping the Colour. Just beyond, St James’s Park, work of the indefatigable John Nash and the finest and most carefully laid out of the Royal parks, is the Palace’s front garden.

12 Carlton House Terr, T 020-7930 3647; galleries T 020-7930 6844, http://www.ica.org.uk. 1200-1930 daily, admission £1.50, £2.50 Sat, Sun. Day membership £1.50 Mon-Fri, £2.50 Sat, Sun. M Charing Cross or Piccadilly Circus.

At the bottom of the steps on the left, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) was founded in 1948 by the anarchist Herbert Read. Nash’s stately Georgian terrace seems an incongruous setting for the radical film, theatre, dance and art shown here.

T 020-7930 4832; tickets in advance by credit card on T 020-7321 2233, 7766 7300 or by post to The Visitor Office, Buckingham Palace, London, SW1A 1AA, http://www.royal.gov.uk. 0930-1630 Aug and Sep. Ticket Office in Green Park near The Mall, for tickets on the day, 0900-1600. £12.50, concessions £10.50, child £6.50. Changing of the Guard at 1130 daily Apr 1 to the end of Jul; alternate days the rest of the year. Queen’s Gallery: daily 1000-1630, adult £6.50, £5 concessions, £3 under-16s. M Victoria, Green Park or Hyde Park Corner.

At the opposite end of The Mall from Admiralty Arch stands the Victoria Memorial, a white marble monument topped with a winged figure of Victory, now best serving as a vantage point from which to view the Changing of the Guard on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.

In 1993 the Queen opened the doors of the Palace for the first time to raise money for the restoration of the fire-damaged Windsor Castle. A maximum of 250 visitors are admitted every 15 minutes, in a fairly successful attempt to avoid overcrowding (or perhaps for fear of rebellion) on a one-way route around 14 state rooms, as well as the ballroom and the garden, shepherded by 200 extra staff in navy blue and red uniforms who are generally friendly and well-informed.

The Queen’s Gallery is open all year, and houses the Queen’s collection of Old Masters and portraiture, an extraordinary array founded by Charles II, which has recently been re-hung in purpose- built new galleries.

T 020-7930 4832. Feb-Oct daily 1100-1515, Aug-Sep Mon-Thu 1000- 1515, last admission 30 mins before closing. Adult £5, £4 OAPs, £2.50 under-16s. M Victoria or Hyde Park Corner.

If you’ve still got a stomach for all things Royal, next door to the Palace are the Royal Mews, also open most of the year, where all the Queen’s stately transport is kept, including her gilded State coach and her Windsor grey horses. If anything the array of splendid carriages gives a better value and more atmospheric insight into the pageant of British sovereignty than the Palace itself.

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