Friary Court

St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster in London. Although no longer the principal residence of the monarch, it is the ceremonial meeting place of the Accession Council, the office of the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, and the London residence of several members of the royal family. Built by order of Henry VIII in the 1530s on the site of an isolated leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less, the palace was secondary in importance to the Palace of Whitehall for most Tudor and Stuart monarchs. Initially surrounded by a deer park and gardens, it was generally used as a hunting lodge and retreat from the formal court and occasionally a royal guest house. After the destruction by fire of Whitehall, the palace increased in importance during the reigns of the early Hanoverian monarchs but was displaced by Buckingham Palace in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries. After decades of being used increasingly for only formal occasions, the move was formalised by Queen Victoria in 1837. The palace now houses a number of official offices, societies and collections, and all ambassadors and high commissioners to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the Court of St James's. The palace's Chapel Royal is still used for functions of the British royal family. The palace was mainly built between 1531 and 1536 in red-brick, and its architecture is primarily Tudor in style. The Queen's Chapel was added in 1620s, and Clarence House was built directly next to it in the 1820s. A fire in 1809 destroyed parts of the palace, including the monarch's private apartments, which were never replaced. Some 17th-century interiors survive, but most were remodelled in the 19th century.

The Queen Alexandra Memorial on Marlborough Road, London, which commemorates Queen Alexandra of Denmark, was executed by the sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert between 1926 and 1932. It consists of a bronze screen incorporating allegorical figures, set into the garden wall of Marlborough House. A late example of a work in the Art Nouveau style, it was regarded by the sculptor as his "Swan song".Before 1926 Gilbert was living in exile abroad, having fled Britain in 1901 bankrupt and disgraced after failing to complete the tomb of the Duke of Clarence in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Gilbert later claimed that the Duke's mother, Princess Alexandra (Queen Alexandra after her husband's accession to the throne as Edward VII), was the only member of the royal family who supported him after this debacle. She is also supposed to have expressed a wish in her old age that Gilbert might execute her memorial, should he outlive her.In 1926 Gilbert was invited to return to Britain, a result of the machinations of his biographer, the journalist Isabel McAllister. She had the twofold aim of getting Gilbert to complete the Clarence tomb (which he had succeeded in doing by 1928) and to receive the commission for a memorial to Queen Alexandra, who had died the previous year. The artist Lady Helena Gleichen offered her studio in St James's Palace for Gilbert's use. The committee to Erect a Memorial to Queen Alexandra was set up in late 1926 and approached Gilbert in December of that year.The symbolism of the central sculptural group is explained by Gilbert in an "exegesis" he prepared for the Committee in 1927: Central Group—represents "Love Enthroned", supported by Faith and Hope, on either side, and Love is directing a Boy sent out across the "River of Life", which springs from beneath Her Throne—symbolizing Queen Alexandra's charity to Children, also the water typifies Her advent to Great Britain from across the water. The composition is in a style adapted from Perpendicular Gothic architecture, with three buttressed and pinnacled canopies over the figures and linenfold motifs on the screen. Two further allegorical statuettes appear on finials on the throne, that on the left representing Religion and the other without an attribute to help with identification, though Truth has been proposed as its subject.The two main inscriptions read QUEEN ALEXANDRA/ 1844 A TRIBUTE TO THE EMPIRE'S LOVE 1925 (on the bronze base) and FAITH, HOPE, LOVE./ THE GUIDING VIRTUES OF QUEEN ALEXANDRA (on the granite base below). A further inscription at the side of the bronze base reads A. B. BURTON. FOUNDER.The memorial was cast by A. B. Burton at the Thames Ditton Foundry. It was unveiled on 8 June 1932 (Alexandra Rose Day) by George V. At the unveiling ceremony the memorial was blessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, and the choir of the Chapel Royal gave the first performance of Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode, which had been composed for the occasion by the Master of the King's Music, Sir Edward Elgar, with lyrics by the Poet Laureate, John Masefield. On the following day Gilbert received his knighthood from the King at Buckingham Palace. The memorial was Gilbert's last completed public artwork, as he died in November 1934.

The Queen's Chapel (officially, The Queen's Chapel St. James Palace) is a chapel in central London, England, that was designed by Inigo Jones and built between 1623 and 1625 as an external adjunct to St. James's Palace for the Roman Catholic queen Henrietta Maria. It is one of the facilities of the British monarch's personal religious establishment, the Chapel Royal, but should not be confused with the 1540 building also known as the Chapel Royal, which is within the palace and just across Marlborough Road. It is a Grade I listed building.

York House is a historic wing of St James's Palace, London, built for Frederick, Prince of Wales, on his marriage in 1736. It is in the north-western part of the palace on the site of a former suttling-house (canteen) for the Guards; it overlooks Ambassadors' Court and Cleveland Row to the west of the old Chapel Royal. Prince Frederick occupied it for about a year, until his quarrel with the his father drove him from Court. In 1795, Princess Caroline resided here before her marriage with the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, subsequently King of Hanover, lived here for a great many years; and the Duchess of Cambridge was identified with it from 1851 until her death in 1889. Later occupants included the future George V, the late Duke and Duchess of Gloucester from 1936 to 1970, and Princes Charles, William and Harry, who used it before moving to Clarence House.As Edward, Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII lived at York House, before his refurbishment of Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park.The building includes a suite of somewhat low-pitched rooms on the ground-floor, several drawing-rooms on the first floor, a corridor in the rear, and the servants' rooms on the top storey; all facing Cleveland Row. The ceilings of the top floor are low, height having been sacrificed to that of the drawing-room floor; during the nineteenth century this was a common practice in London mansions. The name York House has been used at various times for other houses occupied by various Dukes of York, including those now known as Cumberland House, Dover House, Lancaster House and The Albany.

The Beaconsfield Club was a London gentlemen's club, now dissolved, which was established in 1880 and was disbanded circa 1887-8. For most of its existence, between 1880 and 1887, it occupied 66-68 Pall Mall, London. The Club was formally linked to the Conservative party, with members having to pledge allegiance to join. It was named in honour of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. It purchased its clubhouse from a Captain John Elliott, who had built it for the short-lived Junior Naval and Military Club, but went bankrupt as a direct result of constructing the building.However, the Beaconsfield Club was not as successful as had been hoped, and was forced to leave the premises by 1887, closing within a year. The building in turn was then passed on to the equally short-lived Unionist Club, before being demolished in 1930.Correspondence relating to the Beaconsfield Club is held by the University of Glasgow.

Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the Duke of Clarence, the future king William IV. Over the years, it has undergone much extensive remodelling and reconstruction, most notably after being heavily damaged in the Second World War by enemy bombing during The Blitz where little remains of the original structure as designed by John Nash. It is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England. The house is open to visitors for approximately one month each summer, usually in August. The four-storey house is faced in pale stucco. Clarence House currently serves as the London residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Clarence House was also the official residence of Prince William from 2003 until April 2011, and of Prince Harry from 2003 until March 2012. From 1953 until 2002 it was home to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and before her, it was the official home of Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II.

Full Fact is a British charity, based in London, which checks and corrects facts reported in the news as well as claims which circulate on social media.

The Embassy of Sudan in London is the diplomatic mission of Sudan in the United Kingdom.In 2013 the embassy was the site of a protest following a crackdown against protestors in Khartoum opposed to cuts in a fuel subsidy.

Mark Masons' Hall in London is the headquarters of The Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England and Wales, which is also responsible for the Royal Ark Mariner degree. It is located in 86 St James's Street in the central London district of St James's, opposite St James's Palace. While Freemasons' Hall is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England, Mark Masons' Hall is the home of several other important appendant orders of Freemasonry in England and Wales.

Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR) is a family-run British wine and spirits merchant founded in London in 1698. Since then, the company has grown from a small coffee shop into an international business with six offices worldwide. As well as the wines, such as en primeur from places like Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône and Italy, the company also sells wines and spirits under its own-label range, Berry Bros. & Rudd's Own Selection. Other services it offers include wine investment, wine storage, wine tastings, events and educational courses.

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a school of British history painting. In addition to the establishment of the gallery, Boydell planned to produce an illustrated edition of William Shakespeare's plays and a folio of prints based upon a series of paintings by different contemporary painters. During the 1790s the London gallery that showed the original paintings emerged as the project's most popular element. The works of William Shakespeare enjoyed a renewed popularity in 18th-century Britain. Several new editions of his works were published, his plays were revived in the theatre and numerous works of art were created illustrating the plays and specific productions of them. Capitalising on this interest, Boydell decided to publish a grand illustrated edition of Shakespeare's plays that would showcase the talents of British painters and engravers. He chose the noted scholar and Shakespeare editor George Steevens to oversee the edition, which was released between 1791 and 1803. The press reported weekly on the building of Boydell's gallery, designed by George Dance the Younger, on a site in Pall Mall. Boydell commissioned works from famous painters of the day, such as Joshua Reynolds, and the folio of engravings proved the enterprise's most lasting legacy. However, the long delay in publishing the prints and the illustrated edition prompted criticism. Because they were hurried, and many illustrations had to be done by lesser artists, the final products of Boydell's venture were judged to be disappointing. The project caused the Boydell firm to become insolvent, and they were forced to sell the gallery at a lottery.

The Oxford and Cambridge Club is a traditional London club. Membership is largely restricted to those who are members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, including men and women who have a degree from or who are current undergraduates of either university. The Club is the result of a number of amalgamations of university clubs, most recently that of 1972 between the United University Club, founded in 1821, and the Oxford and Cambridge University Club, founded in 1830. From 1972 until 2001 the Club was known as the United Oxford and Cambridge University Club. Women have been admitted as full members since 1997. The Club is based at 71–77 Pall Mall, in a purpose-built, Grade II* listed club house designed by Sir Robert Smirke.