ST JAMES’S - London - page 101

CLARENCE HOUSE
Stable Yard Rd Green Park 020 7766 7303, royalcollection.org.uk . Aug Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat & Sun
10am-5.30pm.£9.50. MAP
Built in the 1820s by John Nash for the future William IV, and used as his principal residen-
ce, Clarence House was home to the Queen Mother , widow of George VI, until 2002, and
is now the official London home of Charles and Camilla. A handful of rooms can be visited
over the summer when the royals are in Scotland. Visits must be booked in advance and are
by guided tour only, and the rooms are pretty unremarkable, so apart from a peek behind the
scenes in a working royal palace, and a few mementoes of the Queen Mum, the main draw
is the twentieth-century British paintings on display by the likes of Walter Sickert and
Augustus John.
SPENCER HOUSE
St James's Place Green Park 020 7514 1958, www.spencerhouse.co.uk . Feb-July & Sept-Dec Sun
10.30am-5.45pm. No under 10s.£12. MAP
Most of St James's palatial residences are closed to the public, with the exception of this su-
perb Palladian mansion, built between 1756 and 1766. Ancestral home of the late Diana,
Princess of Wales, it was last lived in by the family in 1926. Inside, guides take you on an
hour-long tour through eight of the state rooms. The Great Room features a stunning coved
and coffered ceiling in green, white and gold, while the Painted Room is a feast of Neoclas-
sicism, decorated with murals in the “Pompeian manner”. The most outrageous decor,
though, is in Lord Spencer's Room , with its gilded palm-tree columns.