Royal London

The palaces and the parades, and the places where the last hundred years of the story happened: where Elizabeth II was born, where Diana lived, where the balcony is. Filter by monarch or by kind.

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St James's Palace & the Chapel Royal

The senior palace, where new monarchs are proclaimed from the Friary Court balcony and where Diana lay in the Chapel Royal before her funeral.

PalacesChurches & chapels

Photo by Steven Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also in Power & Politics.

Henry VIII built it, the court was formally based here until Victoria moved to Buckingham Palace, and ambassadors are still accredited to the Court of St James's. The Accession Council met here the morning after the Queen died and Garter King of Arms read the proclamation of Charles III from the gallery over Friary Court, with the crowd in the yard; Victoria married Albert in the Chapel Royal in 1840, Diana's coffin rested there for five days in September 1997, and George, Louis and Meghan were christened there. The Queen's Chapel across Marlborough Road, by Inigo Jones, shares the choir; both hold Sunday services the public can attend for most of the year.

Where
Marlborough Road, SW1A 1BQ
Nearest station
Green Park · 5 min walk

Not open, except guided tours on selected dates; Chapel Royal services on Sunday mornings, October to July

Charles III was proclaimed from the balcony over Friary Court on 10 September 2022, the ceremony the crowd could stand in the yard for.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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