St James's Square sits at the heart of London's clubland, a serene Georgian enclosure that has witnessed both high society and sudden violence. Laid out in the 1660s, it became one of London's most fashionable addresses, home to dukes, prime ministers and, at Number 31, the headquarters where General Eisenhower planned the D-Day invasion.
The square's gardens contain a sobering memorial: a simple stone marking where WPC Yvonne Fletcher fell in 1984, shot from a window of the Libyan Embassy during a protest. The building, now under different tenancy, still overlooks the spot where flowers are laid each April.
Today the square houses the London Library and Chatham House, the foreign affairs think tank whose "Chatham House Rule" governs discreet conversations worldwide. VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the square's connections to wartime espionage and Cold War diplomacy, revealing how this quiet garden became a stage for events that shaped international history.