“Children of the Chapel” is the quaint name given to the choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.
There is no dedicated choir school as many cathedrals have. The choristers are drawn from pupils at City of London School and receive a scholarship equal to 30% of their school fees from when they become choristers until they reach the end of Fifth Form. (Apparently not chucked out when their voices break.) The choir was established in the reign of Henry V but since The Restoration wear the State uniform of Charles II. Thomas Edwards and Arthur Sullivan sang in the choir. The former became servant to Thomas Pepys and the latter stuck to music as a composer, famously in collaboration with WS Gilbert.
You may wonder why they are prancing around outside St James’s Palace – glad you asked. First, although they have to sing for their bursaries, they are given holidays; namely all August and September and the first Sundays after Christmas and Easter. From the first Sunday in October until Good Friday they sing at Services in the Tudor chapel decorated by Holbein for the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne of Cleves. From Easter Sunday until the last Sunday in July, Services are held at the Queen’s Chapel across Marlborough Road, designed by Inigo Jones. Both chapels, if you have not visited are exquisite and a visit to London would be incomplete without attending a Service. Ideally a visit should only comprise Sundays so that one’s devotions may be made at the chapels/churches at Greenwich, the Tower of London, Hampton Court, the Royal Hospital and others – a few City churches, St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey perhaps.