Qualla: St James's Park https://qualla.com/st-james-s-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/st-james-s-park-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: St James's Park https://qualla.com/st-james-s-park St James's Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/st-james-s-park/ Photo credit Pointillist at English Wikipedia, Public domain. A pelican has lived in St James's Park since 1664, when a Russian ambassador sent a gift of birds to Charles II. The descendants of those pelicans are still here, mostly clip-winged, mostly polite, occasionally - and famously, in 1999 - eating other waterfowl whole. They preside over a 23-hectare patch of central London bounded by Buckingham Palace at one end, Whitehall at the other, with The Mall running along its northern flank as a processional avenue and Birdcage Walk closing the south. It is the oldest Royal Park in the city, the eastern terminus of a near-continuous green chain that stretches to Kensington Gardens, and the place where the British monarchy's official ceremonial geography begins.

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Image: Pointillist at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/st-james-s-park-wp/gcpu-st-jamess-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full St James's Park: How Henry VIII Got It https://qualla.com/st-james-s-park/ Photo credit PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1532, Henry VIII bought a patch of marshland from Eton College through which a small river called the Tyburn ran. He needed it because he had just acquired Cardinal Wolsey's nearby York Place and wanted to upgrade it from cardinal's residence to royal palace - a transformation...

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Image: PAUL FARMER | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/st-james-s-park-wp/gcpu-st-jamess-park-how-henry-viii-got-it.mp3 0:06 2 full St James's Park: Charles II and the Lechery Years https://qualla.com/st-james-s-park/ Photo credit N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. Charles II returned from exile in France in 1660 with a head full of Versailles. He had the park redesigned in the formal French style, probably by Andre Mollet, with a long ornamental canal 775 metres by 38 metres slicing straight through its middle. He opened it to the public -...

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Image: N Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/st-james-s-park-wp/gcpu-st-jamess-park-charles-ii-and-the-lechery-years.mp3 0:06 3 full St James's Park: John Nash Romances the Canal https://qualla.com/st-james-s-park/ Photo credit Brendan and Ruth McCartney, CC BY-SA 2.0. The current shape of the park dates almost entirely to 1826-27, when the Prince Regent - soon to be George IV - commissioned the architect John Nash to romanticise everything. Nash converted Charles II's straight canal into the irregular, naturally-curving lake that exists today....

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Image: Brendan and Ruth McCartney | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/st-james-s-park-wp/gcpu-st-jamess-park-john-nash-romances-the-canal.mp3 0:06 4 full St James's Park: The Bomb-Disposal Birdkeeper of Duck Island https://qualla.com/st-james-s-park/ Photo credit LondonHistoryatHome, CC BY-SA 4.0. At the eastern end of the lake sits Duck Island, named for its tenants and once, in the late nineteenth century, used by Scotland Yard as a bomb disposal facility. The duties of the resident birdkeeper expanded accordingly: feed the pelicans, count the swans, mind the explosives....

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Image: LondonHistoryatHome | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/st-james-s-park-wp/gcpu-st-jamess-park-the-bomb-disposal-birdkeeper-of-duck-island.mp3 0:06 5 full