St James’s Street is a main road of the West End running from Pall Mall to Piccadilly.
St James’s Street was built up in the 1720s or earlier but without an overall plan. It received a boost with Lord St Albans’ planned construction of St James’s Square of ’harmonious grand town houses’.
Two 18th-century yards survive behind the noble frontages and giant orders of columns or pilasters of the street. One is Blue Ball Yard, with stables built in 1742. The other is Pickering Place, with four informal Georgian brick houses of 1731.
Jermyn Street, noted for gentlemen’s tailors and associated shops, leads off St James’s Street to the east. In the 17th century Clarendon House faced down the street across Piccadilly on the site of most of Albemarle Street.
The main gatehouse of the St James’s Palace is at the southern end of St James’s Street. The street contains several of London’s best-known gentlemen’s clubs, such as Boodle’s, Brooks’s, the Carlton Club and White’s.