St James's

Photo of a red tour bus crossing Pall Mall, a wide street. Photo of a red tour bus crossing Pall Mall, a wide street.
Photo by me, if only it had been sunnier.

St James’s feels a little besieged, sandwiched between Piccadilly, The Mall and Trafalgar Square. Some of the backstreets around Piccadilly can be a bit, um, pungent. 🤢

Nevertheless the centre is nice, with a garden square that is open to the public on weekdays.

The area is insanely wealthy - all high end art galleries and tailors - so isn’t exactly buzzing at weekends. Pall Mall was the liveliest street when I was there - well, there was an ice cream van.

Things to do

Photo of people viewing some photographs on display at the galleries. Photo of people viewing some photographs on display at the galleries.
Photo by me, looking wistfully at actually good photos.

Mall Galleries

The door to the Mall Galleries is easily missed, its next to the Institute of Contemporary arts.

One of the galleries has a small café in the corner selling coffees and sandwiches, though I was there for Food Photographer of the Year so can’t be completely certain it wasn’t an exhibit.

£5.00

Re-opens 12 Jan 25

www.mallgalleries.org.uk
Photo of the exterior of the Royal Society, a classical building.
Photo by me.

Royal Society

The Royal Society is a serious, working academic institution and, as nice as everyone was, I did feel like I wasn’t really supposed to be visiting.

The only other person in the exhibition space was doing a TV interview on their laptop. 😬

During the summer they open up with family friendly science exhibitions which are really the events that most people visit for.

Free

royalsociety.org
Photo of the door to the gallery, with a tree in the foreground.
Photo by me. No exhibitions on so, well, here's a door.

Institute of Contemporary Arts

The ICA is a slightly subversive feeling space with an emphasis on showing non-mainstream films.

The galleries are only open for exhibitions, but there’s a (not amazing, sorry) café and a shop stocking books focused on progressive issues.

Free

www.ica.art
Photo of an intricately plastered ceiling, with paintings.
Photo by me, some nice ceiling detail.

Spencer House

Spencer House is a relic of when St James’s was somehow even more upmarket than it is now.

Narrowly avoiding destruction during World War Two, the house was fully restored in the 1980s.

You can only visit for tours on Sundays, the one I was on took ~90 minutes. Lady Di got mentioned after about 30 seconds, later than I expected.

£18.50 - guided tour

www.spencerhouse.co.uk

Parks & Gardens

View from St James's Park across the lake View from St James's Park across the lake
Photo by Szymon Shields on Unsplash

St James's Park

St James’s Park is the smallest of the parks in the area but I think the prettiest, featuring a large ornamental lake and lots of flower borders.

As well as the usual ducks and geese it is famously home to a small population of pelicans, a gift from the Russian Ambassador in 1664.

www.royalparks.org.uk