St. James’s lies just south of Piccadilly Circus and north of Pall Mall, a slice of the West End which is surprisingly overlooked by tourists, by way of it being in between several attractions which draw attention away from it. Trafalgar Square is located to the southeast of the area, and Leicester Square to the east. The main features of the area itself are the main roads which run down it from north to south – Regent Street, St. James’s (formerly Lower Regent Street and Waterloo Place), and Haymarket. Regency-era buildings dominate the area, with some modern buildings located in between. The former runs northbound traffic, while the latter southbound. The area has a somewhat Mayfair-like feel to it, but is notable for being more aristocratic in nature (owing to its proximity to Buckingham Palace) and architectural style, and still retains some of its old gentlemen’s clubs, but today it has a far more commercial use than in the past, with numerous restaurants, clubs and high-end shops.

Haymarket is a street connecting Piccadilly and Pall Mall, two long east-west streets, and has been recorded since the Elizabethan era. The street, as per its name, was primarily a place to sell animal feed and other farm produce. In this era, the closest settlement was Charing (today the KM 0, where all distances from London are measured), and it was a rural village. The market existed until 1830, when it was moved to Cumberland Market near Regent’s Park. Haymarket also had a reputation for being an area for prostitution up until the late Victorian era.

Her Majesty’s Theatre is located on Haymarket, and is the fourth incarnation of a theatre on the site, built in 1897 in French Renaissance design. The name changes with the gender of the reigning monarch. The Theatre Royal is located on the opposite side of Haymarket, and has existed in that location since 1821 (previously it was situated slightly north, though also on the same street). Both theatres have had considerable histories, emerging as the West End was blossoming with competing theatres and rival actors.

The area itself may not get as much footfall as the surrounding areas, but it is still the site of considerable traffic – many roads nearby, such as Piccadilly and Pall Mall, particularly at the Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus intersections, can get very congested.

Regent Street St. James’s was itself born out of a coalition of shops and businesses which paid to have it renamed, as part of a rebranding effort to attract people from the surrounding areas to its establishments. New stores emerge there on a regular basis – such as Aspinal of London’s new flagship store, which can gift wrap, handwrite a message, and deliver any item to nearly anywhere in the world in 24-48 hours.