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We offer daily services and a creative programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
Come and celebrate the hope and light that Christmas brings each winter
St James’s hosts inclusive services and a cultural programme. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
St James’s is a place to explore, reflect, pray, and support all who are in need. We are a Church of England parish in the Anglican Communion. This is a place for everyone who’s wondering about life’s big questions and striving for a better world.
We host a year-round creative programme encompassing music, visual art and spoken word, drawing on St James’s rich cultural history including artists, writers and musicians Mary Beale, Mary Delany, William Blake, Ottobah Cugoano and Leopold Stokowski.
We try to put our faith into action by educating ourselves and speaking out on issues of injustice, especially concerning refugees, asylum, earth and racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues.
We aspire to be a home where everyone can belong. We’re known locally and globally for our unique history and beauty, as well as faith in action, creativity and the arts, and a commitment to social and environmental justice.
We strive to be a Eucharist-centred, diverse and inclusive Christian community promoting life in abundance, wellbeing and dignity for all.
St James’s Piccadilly has been at the heart of its community since 1684. We invite you to play your part in securing this historic place for generations to come.
It costs us £3,500 per day to enable us to keep our doors open to all who need us
Your donation will help us restore our garden in Piccadilly as part of The Wren Project, making it possible for us to welcome over 300,000 people from all faiths and walks of life seeking tranquillity and inspiration each year.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
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St James’s show garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show May 2024
Under the theme ‘Imagine the World to be Different’, our garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show encourages visitors to cherish the earth and one another. It recognises the importance of gardens as welcoming spaces for healing and contemplation and pays homage to the revitalising qualities of urban green spaces.
This May’s Chelsea garden designed by Robert Myers it will form the basis of a restored, accessible garden at St James’s in London’s West End, where around 300,000 people from all faiths and walks of life seek tranquillity and inspiration each year.
Grant-giving charity Project Giving Back, is sponsoring our garden at Chelsea in support of The Wren Project. The visibility of our garden at the show will help us raise £20m to rejuvenate the historic, Wren-designed church, and particularly to restore our Piccadilly garden.
The Wren Project will make it possible for St James’s to accommodate and amplify our environmental activity and social outreach work with people experiencing homelessness, refugees and asylum-seekers and those persecuted because of their sexuality or identity.
The garden design At the heart of our Chelsea garden design is the architecture of Wren’s church – an arched window. A new structure, designed by artist Ivan Morison, to house the Caravan Drop-In and Counselling Service, will also feature. In time, this new cabin will be relocated to the restored garden in Piccadilly along with plants from our show garden.
Garden designer Robert Myers takes inspiration from London’s pocket parks and historic churchyards like St James’s which have suffered the scars of wartime bombing yet refuse to give in to destruction. The woodland-style planting focuses on textural foliage with splashes of colour and features wild/pioneer plants, such as chickweed, speedwell and vetch, that are known for resilience and regeneration.
Our Chelsea garden will be a reflective space where nature takes centre stage. Calm, contemplative and uplifting, it will offer a refuge for humans and wildlife.
The Caravan Drop-in and Counselling Service Our free, seven-day-a-week, drop-in and counselling service welcomes clients from all walks of life. Run in partnership with the Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy Education since 1982, the Caravan offers a safe and private space for around 5,000 hours of counselling a year. Read more about the Caravan here.
The Wren Project St James’s needs to raise £20 million. To find out how you can support our campaign to restore the church and garden in Piccadilly, read more here
More about our show garden at Chelsea
Here are just some of the people who came to say hello – you might spot some familiar faces.
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Sonia Lee reflects on her enriching experience as an ambassador for St James’s Piccadilly Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, highlighting the garden’s Gold Award, the enthusiastic public reception.
Find out about the special, handmade birdhouse featured in St James’s RHS Chelsea garden this year, as seen on the BBC.
The Sixteen and St James’s Piccadilly reveal new composition by Will Todd in celebration of Chelsea Flower Show.
Lucy Winkett reflects on the power of birdsong to bring hope, even in the middle of a city.
Discover how St James’s show garden ‘Imagine the World to be Different’ has been created with this short film by our sponsor Project Giving Back.
D.R. Harris & Co has developed an exclusive new fragrance to celebrate St James’s participation in RHS Chelsea Flower Show to raise funds for The Wren Project.
Luke has created this special edition print for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to raise funds for The Wren Project.
Lucy reflects on Maytime traditions, the politics of being English and the origins of the Spring Show in west London that has become RHS Chelsea
From the initial ground-breaking to the final flourish of blossoms, see our RHS garden come to life with this timelapse of the installation on the main avenue at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Online coverage of the Imagine the World to be Different garden designed by Robert Myers for St James’s and sponsored by Project Giving Back.
Robert Myers, St James’s Chelsea Show Garden designer, explains how prioritising sustainability throughout the projects lifecycle sets a new standard for ecologically-driven practices.
Landscape architect for St James’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show Garden 2024, Robert Myers, talks about the importance of trees in our show garden design.
Award-winning landscape architect Robert Myers will create a pioneering vision of change in our show garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024, sponsored by grant-making charity Project Giving Back.
After the war of 1939–45 Viscount Southwood provided money for the ‘green’ churchyard to be made into a garden of remembrance ‘to commemorate the courage and fortitude of the people of London’.
The grant-making charity Project Giving Back has awarded St James’s Piccadilly a show garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, called ‘Imagine the World to be Different’.