St James's Palace
Good to know
- Best time to go
- Year-round
- Budget
- $
- Accessibility
- not-accessible
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom, built by Henry VIII in the 1530s on the site of a former leper hospital. Its red-brick Tudor gatehouse and turrets survive amid later additions, giving it an intimate, castle-like character. Though monarchs no longer reside here, foreign ambassadors are still formally accredited to the Court of St James's, and the accession of a new sovereign is proclaimed from its balcony. Not open to the public, it remains a working royal residence.
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