Prince Henry's Room, museum in City of London

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What is recorded here

Prince Henry's Room occupies the first floor of 17 Fleet Street, a timber-framed house rebuilt in 1610 and one of the rare City buildings to survive the Great Fire of 1666. Its name comes from a later association with Henry, Prince of Wales, rather than proof that he used the room. A richly moulded plaster ceiling, carved panelling and corner fireplace preserve an unusual early-seventeenth-century interior above a changing commercial street.

Why it was built

The house was rebuilt in 1610 as part of the Inner Temple estate on busy Fleet Street. Its first-floor front room gave an important occupant a well-lit, richly decorated space above commercial rooms at street level.

People and work

Craft workers formed its plaster ceiling, timber frame, panelling and carved fireplace. The traditional link with Prince Henry gave the room its later name, but surviving evidence does not establish that James I's eldest son lived or worked there.

How it changed

The house escaped the Great Fire because it stood just beyond the flames' western limit. Shops and offices occupied the building, and the room later held Samuel Pepys displays and a public exhibition before commercial reuse.

What survives

The street front, timber structure and first-floor room survive, including the elaborate Jacobean plaster ceiling, wood panelling and fireplace. The building's Grade II* protection recognises how little domestic work from before 1666 remains in the City.

Why it mattered

Prince Henry's Room gives Fleet Street a physical link to the city before the Great Fire. Its uncertain royal name is also instructive: the genuine value lies in the surviving room and craft, not in turning tradition into certainty.