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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.
We are delighted to announce that from 6 Jan until early Apr 2025, work will take place to reinstate the church’s South Door onto Jermyn Street, part of Sir Christopher Wren’s original design.
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.
We host a year-round creative programme encompassing music, visual art and spoken word.
We offer hospitality to people going through homelessness and speak out on issues of injustice, especially concerning refugees, asylum, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues.
St James’s strives to advocate for earth justice and to develop deeper connections with nature.
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.
The work of St James’s, it costs us £5,000 per day to enable us to keep our doors open to all who need us.
New walkways, a restored courtyard and re-landscaped gardens will provide fully accessible, beautiful spaces for everyone to enjoy as well as improving our environmental performance.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
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Performed by The Cory Band on 1 April 2023 in a concert in support of The Wren Project
The piece, composed by Cory Band’s conductor Philip Harper, is cast in four parts, composed and conducted by David Harper. It was commissioned by St James’s Church, Piccadilly, to mark The Wren Project as part of the 300th Anniversary of Sir Christopher Wren. The work features the hymn tune written by a former organist of SJP called ‘St James’s’. You can read Philip’s synopsis
I. The Great Fire
II. Aftermath
III. Vision
IV. Renaissance
The musical narrative begins with the Great Fire of London raging furiously. The bells ring the alarm and, as the capital city is engulfed by flames, panic and desperation are everywhere. As the fire burns out, we are left to contemplate the aftermath of the inferno: lost lives and countless buildings destroyed. Enter Sir Christopher Wren, the greatest English architect of the time, whose vision and courage were some of the most influential forces in the rebuilding of London, which rose to reclaim its place as one of the great cities of the World.
At the heart of the piece is the hymn tune “St. James” by Raphael Courteville (Thou Art the Way), the title of which refers to St James’s Church, Piccadilly, one of the many buildings designed in 1684 and constructed by Wren in London’s renaissance. During the fire, the hymn tune is contorted in agony, then turned into a lament during the aftermath.
Wren’s vision takes shape in the form of several obligato-style solos with the hymn tune becoming more and more important. In Renaissance, as the skyline is rebuilt, there are continual optimistic rising lines in every phrase until, finally, the hymn tune is heard in all its glory as the building of the magnificent church is completed and the bells ring again, this time in great celebration.
There are many other musical references to the fire in the piece, for example the children’s nursery rhyme, London’s Burning, and at its conclusion, nods to George Frederic Handel and William Blake, two of many eminent people to be linked to St James’s Church.
