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We offer daily services and a cultural programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate
Sunday 13 July at 3pm in the Southwood Garden
Join St James’s Piccadilly Music Scholars for a summer afternoon of music and refreshment as they raise essential funds for their annual summer tour.
Saturday 19 July 9am
Join us for the walk through the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside, which will take us from Harpenden to St Albans.
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.
A reimagined St James’s realised. A redesigned garden, courtyard and new building capacity—all fully accessible— will provide beautiful spaces for all as well as improving our environmental performance.
Whether shooting a blockbuster TV series or creating a unique corporate event, every hire at St James’s helps our works within the community.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
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Music Scholar Quito Clothier reflects on his transformative year as a Singing Scholar at St James’s, Piccadilly, from dragging a Boris Bike up the Duke of York steps to singing jazzed-up hymns in chinos—a tuneful, eccentric, and unexpectedly life-affirming adventure.
So, what’s it like? Being a Singing Scholar at St James’s, I mean…
It was a warm summer’s day in 2024 when I walked into St James’s, Picadilly for the first time. I’d ‘Boris Biked’ all the way from my house in Balham and hadn’t anticipated all the roads being closed due a double whammy of simultaneous marches going on in central London for Trans Pride and Tommy Robinson. Approaching from the South, I’d found myself being funnelled into St James’s Park and therefore had to drag the rather cumbersome machine I’d brought with me all the way up the steps by the Duke of York column – I was simultaneously a wee bit tardy and a little hot. The Trans Pride march came barrelling down Picadilly just as I started my audition, the sounds of tambourines and hollers passing through the windows. I remember being asked, quite in earnest, ‘How conservative a Christian are you?’. Indeed, I am not a conservative Christian. But, even if I were, I’m sure I’d nonetheless have been quickly transformed into a happy St James-ite in no time.
Doing some quick back-of-the-napkin calculations, when I count up how many choirs (that I can remember) that I’ve sung with, the number so far comes to nearly 30. None of them are quite like St James’s. As I was not au fait with the dress code ahead of time, smart dress and suits were my wardrobe for the first few weeks of this year’s scholarship at St James’s, until it became apparent that (in order of trendiness) chinos, jeans, t-shirts, trainers, fabulous heavy earrings, hats, furs, neon scarves, designer handbags and even sunglasses are de rigueur among the congregation and clergy!
Harking back to a cold Christmas Eve in the depths of Hampshire, I have a distinct memory of an intensely dull, barren Midnight Mass in a local, remote, Anglican parish church, with only three rather anaemic carols and a surplus of anodyne, uninteresting sermoning. Ultimately, my father (being Catholic and prone to a more exciting Christmas worship service) moved our future Midnight Mass attendance to the Catholic church in Petersfield as they were known to bring the house down with at least a dozen carols.
Truly, the musical aspect of St James’s liturgical offering is, for me, a large part of its charm and distinction. The jazz-infused piano intermezzos to accompany the end of the Eucharist, the tutti congregational Hallelujah Chorus at Easter, the gathering song before communion – all are a welcome introduction to my musical life, and I hope that in future I can convince more archaic Music Directors at churches that I work with to incorporate similar music styles into worship services. The music, the omnipresent communal feeling, lovely congregation, the relaxed and exceedingly friendly atmosphere – all are characteristic of SJP’s renowned, inclusive vibrations.
So what really goes into being a Singing Scholar?
Well, naturally there’s rather a lot of singing. Every Saturday, Michael Haslam sends us all the music for the following morning. On Sunday, we arrive at the church at 10am, to sit through a quick rehearsal of all the aforementioned music. At 11am the service starts, and *usually* we are done around 12:30pm. On the 3rd Sunday of the month, this is followed by a short break for lunch, then a 2-hour rehearsal, then Evensong. During Christian Holidays, the number of services goes up massively. During the month of December 2024, I sang 23 separate Christmas services – a large proportion of those were with St James’s.
Another enjoyable aspect of being a Singing Scholar at St James’s is having the chance to work closely with the other Music Scholars, Michael, Harrison and all the other members of the clergy and staff. The first week of the Autumn term, we all went on a jaunt over to Pizza Express, Haymarket, to stuff our faces with pizzas and other assorted Italian goods – what a convivial time we had!
What effect has being at St James’s had on me? Firstly, there is the natural improvement that being part of leading a musical service, singing week in, week out – all of which has contributed to maturing my own voice. But, more importantly, I’ve changed personally – I’ve become more forgiving, more friendly, more welcoming to strangers, more empathetic, more tolerant, far less judgemental. I like to think that’s partly down to my time at St James’s.
One of the many highlights of my time at St James’s so far has been bringing my godparents’ miniature English Bull Terrier, Hector, to church for Easter Sunday. Hector is accustomed to shouting at a wide range of varmints (avian critters, furries, rodents, other dogs, etc. etc.) from his back garden in Barnes. He is a self-proclaimed king of his domain. However, upon entering St James’s, a distinct quiet fell over him. Naturally, there was some snuffling around in various Lay Singers’ bags for treats and Pret à Manger sandwiches, but after 5 minutes or so he settled down and listened, peacefully, to the entire rehearsal and Easter Sunday service. I’ve been reading lots of Mary Oliver recently (thanks to Harrison Knights) and as she says in the poem Her Grave, “A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing”. I think that the effect of the church on a little canine Master of the Universe like Hector, says a good deal more than I could ever hope to express in my own words about the good vibrations of St James’s, Picadilly and its people.
You can find out more about our Music Scholars and how to support them here.
English tenor Quito Clothier read music at the University of Bristol, graduating with first class honours, and currently studies privately with Patricia Rozario OBE, Vocal Studies Professor at the Royal College of Music.
Streamed live on 30 Jun 2025
Programme
Rebecca Clarke – June Twilight Benjamin Britten – Nocturne (from ‘On This Island’) Roger Quilter – Autumn Evening (from ‘4 Songs’) Charles Ives – A Night Song Peter Warlock – Sleep
Eric Coates – I Heard You Singing Benjamin Britten – Now the Great Bear and Pleiades (from ‘Peter Grimes’) Friedrich von Flotow – Ach! So Fromm (from ‘Martha’) Francesco Cilea – ‘È la solita storia’ from L’Arlesiana. Maurice Ravel – Sur L’herbe Hugo Wolf – Abschied (from ‘Mörike-Lieder’) Charles Gounod – Ah! Lève-toi, soleil! (from Roméo et Juliette)
