Perched south of St James’ Park, the neighbourhood that revolves around St James’ Park tube station serves a sphere that constitutes part of the beating heart of political power in Britain. The then Ministry of Justice, Transport for London HQ, and the Department of Business, as well as a handful of embassies can all be spotted on or around Victoria Street. Most likely found in the several Prets and up-market take away eateries that scatter the area, the individuals you’ll find in this area are predominantly workers rather than residents, and perhaps the odd billionaire along the prestigious Birdcage Walk. A stone’s throw away from the beautiful St James Park, where the well-connected tube stop gets its name, tourists and Londoners alike come to view the riveting change of the guards or enjoy a moment of tranquillity – if the pigeons and squirrels are merciful!

Once part of a quiet, marshy village along the south bank of the Thames for around 1000 years, the area was centred around Westminster Abbey. The religious bedrock of London was created by Edward the Confessor, and since the 1200s, has been the home of British politics. But amongst all that power, a shadowy underworld existed within the slums that surrounded the tower holding Big Ben. In 1889, Charles Booth created a poverty map of the area and found that Victoria Street had the highest inequality of all of London – considering the homeless population amidst the billionaire mansions, it seems not a lot has changed. However, on an arguably cheerier note, this name of the area, St James’ Park, gets its origin from the adjacent park, which in turn takes its name from a leper house that used to stand there. It was in the pretty park, often chock-a-block with tourist trying to peep at the Queen, that a skeleton was discovered – belonging to an American Queen obsessive who had passed away whilst camped on the Park’s island in 2011.

St James’ Park’s most famous residents are the pelicans that splash around in the park’s lake. They turned up in 1664 after they were given to King Charles II by the Russian ambassador as a gift. Today’s generation of St James’ pelicans are the direct descendants of those very same birds.

Westminster isn’t exactly known for being a place people call home – the strong majority of the infrastructure in the area is dedicated to work space. Thus, finding a place to live is rare and extortionately expensive. Additionally, due to the terrorist attack outside the Palace of Westminster in March 2017, the area is highly patrolled by security. Lastly, it is worth noting that parts of the area have high levels of homelessness – in fact, Westminster was found to be the third worst borough in London for homelessness in 2018.

The biggest developments around Westminster are the well-known refurb of Westminster Palace, that has been disappointing tourists with its dense scaffolding for a few years now. While the renovations are not expected to be completed before 2030, Big Ben has finally been released from its scaffolding cage and tourists can once again marvel at it. It’s even been reguilded and repainted. Nearby, the £400 million Broadway project, which was completed in 2021, enabled the development of six towers ranging from 13 to 19 stories housing 268 ‘superprime’ flats as well as over 140,000 sq ft of commercial space.