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The Parish forms a part of the Central London Sick Asylum
District, and 5 members of the Board of Managers for the District
are elected by the guardians of the Westminster Union.
For Ecclesiastical Purposes the Parish has been subdivided
into 5 districts, the mother church being St. James's, Piccadilly, of
which the Rev. J. E. Kempe, M.A., is the present rector. The
cost of the parish church, exclusive of the steeple and rectoryhouse,
is stated in the Act of 1685 at £7,000. The church was
built from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren, the funds for its
erection being subscribed by Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans,
and the principal inhabitants of the district. It was finished in
1G83, and consecrated as a Chapel-of-Ease to St. Martin's on
Sunday, 13th July, 1684. In the following year St. James's was
constituted a separate parish, and entirely severed from St. Martin's.
The plainness of the exterior may be attributed to the comparatively
small sum raised, and to a desire that the building should
accommodate 2,000 worshippers; but the interior, both as regards
fitness for its purpose and beauty of architecture, has always been
regarded as a chef-d'oeuvre of the great architect referred to, whose
labours extended over half a century. The steeple, which was not
designed by Wren, was added after the church had been made
paiochial by the Act of James II., and the cost thereof defrayed
from rates. Upon the removal of the scaffolding the tower was
found to be 14: inches out of plumb, and it has so remained to the
present time.
Representation in Parliament.—The Parish of St. James
forms a part of the Borough of W estniinster, which returns two
members to Parliament, the sitting members being the Right Hon.
W. II. Smith and Lord Algernon- Percy. The Register prepared
in 1882 contains the names of 3,618 electors, viz., 5 on the Scot
and Lot List, 657 lodgers, and 2,956 possessing other qualifications.
By the Elementary Education Act, 1870, the Parish is
comprised in the Westminster Division of the School Board for
London. Five members of the School Board are elected by the
ratepayers of the Division.