St James's, the exclusive little enclave sandwiched between The Mall and Piccadilly, was laid out in the 1670s close to St James's Palace. Royal and aristocratic residences predominate along its southern border, gentlemen's clubs cluster along Pall Mall and St James's Street, while jacket-and-tie restaurants and expense-account gentlemen's outfitters line Jermyn Street. Hardly surprising, then, that most Londoners rarely stray into this area.

St James's does, however, contain some interesting architectural set pieces, such as Lower Regent Street, which was the first stage in John Nash's ambitious plan to link George I's magnificent Carlton House with Regent's Park. Like so many of Nash's grandiose schemes, it never quite came to fruition, as George I, soon after ascending the throne, decided that Carlton House - the most expensive palace ever to have been built in London - wasn't quite luxurious enough, and had it pulled down. Instead, Lower Regent Street now opens up into Waterloo Place, at the centre of which stands the Guards' Crimean Memorial, fashioned from captured Russian cannons and featuring a statue of Florence Nightingale. Clearly visible, beyond, is the "Grand Old" Duke of York's Column, erected in 1833, ten years before Nelson's more famous one.

Cutting across Waterloo Place, Pall Mall - named after the croquet-like game of pallo a maglio (ball to mallet) - leads west to St James's Palace, whose main red-brick gate-tower is pretty much all that remains of the Tudor palace erected here by Henry III. When Whitehall Palace burned down in 1698, St James's became the principal royal residence, and in keeping with tradition, an ambassador to the UK is still known as "Ambassador to the Court of St James", even though the court moved down the road to Buckingham Palace when Queven Victoria ascended the throne. The rambling complex now proides a bachelor pad for Prince Charles ( www.princeofwales.go.uk) and is off-limits to the public, with the exception of the Chapel Royal (Oct-Good Friday Sun 8.30am & 11.15am), situated within the palace, and the Queven's Chapel (Easter-July Sun 8.30am & 11.15am), on the other side of Marlborough Road; both are open for services only.

One palatial St James's residence you can visit, however, is the late Princess Diana's ancestral home, Spencer House (Feb-July & Sept-Dec Sun 11.30am-4.45pm; £6), a superb Palladian mansion erected in the 1750s. Inside, tour guides take you through nine of the state rooms, the most outrageous of which is Lord Spencer's Room, with its astonishing gilded palm-tree columns.  Tube: Piccadilly Circus or Green Park.

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