London Uncovered

Mayfair & St James's, W1 & SW1

Mayfair: Handel to Hendrix

Two musicians, two centuries, one wall.

7 stops about 2.9 km about 36 min walking

At 23 and 25 Brook Street, Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel have neighbouring plaques on neighbouring houses — separated by about seven metres and two hundred and thirty years. It is the best single moment on the London plaque map, and it makes a good opening for a walk through Mayfair and St James's. From Brook Street this route runs south past the first Rolls-Royce showroom to the square where Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer program, the house Chopin left for his last public performance, and the address where Florence Nightingale spent her last fifty years.

Start at Bond Street; finish at Green Park or Hyde Park Corner.

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The route

  1. Jimi Hendrix

    1942–1970 · 23 Brook Street, Mayfair, Westminster, W1

    Hendrix lived in the top-floor flat at number 23 in 1968 and 1969, and knew he was next door to Handel. The flat is open to visitors as Handel & Hendrix in London.

  2. about 9 m from the last stop

    George Frideric Handel

    1685–1759 · 25 Brook Street, Westminster, W1

    Handel moved into number 25 in 1723, wrote Messiah here, and died in the house in 1759. Seven metres from Hendrix's front door.

  3. about 390 m from the last stop

    Charles Rolls

    1877–1910 · 14/15 Conduit Street, Mayfair

    Rolls sold cars from this Conduit Street showroom from 1905, the year he met Henry Royce. He was killed flying five years later — the first Briton to die in a powered aircraft.

  4. about 886 m from the last stop

    Ada Lovelace

    1815–1852 · 12 St James's Square, Westminster, SW1

    Byron's daughter lived in St James's Square. Her notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine, published in 1843, describe what is now read as the first computer program.

  5. about 347 m from the last stop

    Frédéric Chopin

    1810–1849 · 4 St James's Place, Westminster, SW1

    Chopin left this house in 1848 to play at the Guildhall — his last public performance. He died in Paris the following year.

  6. about 830 m from the last stop

    Beau Brummell

    1778–1840 · 4 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, W1J 5JF

    Brummell invented the modern suit and, for a while, dictated what every man in London wore. He died penniless in Caen.

  7. about 435 m from the last stop

    Florence Nightingale

    1820–1910 · 10 South Street

    Nightingale lived on this site for fifty years after Scutari, running the campaign for army and hospital reform largely from her bedroom.

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