With its dusty pink façade of crumbling plaster, Number 4 Princelet Street is one of the most striking houses in Spitalfields.

It was built in the 1720s, as were the houses in the streets that surround it, and its first tenant was one Benjamin Truman.

Yes, Truman, from the Truman Brewery, which still thrives nearby. Nowadays, though, the former Truman Brewery has been reinvented as a space of multiple uses: retail units (Rough Trade East is a tenant), exhibition spaces, and a wide range of markets, bars and restaurants.

A special events space

And now, number 4 Princelet Street is an events and exhibition space owned by … the Truman Brewery. And in between that Truman and this Truman, it has housed many generations of immigrants – a topic for a whole blog post in its own right (some other time…). For now, follow me into the bare shell of 14 Princelet Street, as it might have been when the last owner left the house.

This was made possible by the Gagosian art gallery putting on a short exhibition on the early works of Christo. And I mean blink or you’ll miss it short: it lasted only about one week.

A fitting location

Christo was an artist famous for wrapping public structures, like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, or 11 Miami islands, in plastic or fabrics. The exhibition at 4 Princelet street was rather more modest in scale: plastic sheeting around shoes, and magazines, and some old paint cans (a recurring motif). If you know that Bulgarian born Christo was himself an immigrant (and was actually stateless at some point), the house in Princelet Street was the perfect foil.

And the house is absolutely gorgeous. It still has the original wooden wall panels. By now, they have acquired a patina that no modern technique would be able to reproduce (well, probably).

Just think how many pairs of feet it took to wear down that staircase!

And that view at the back? Why, it’s nothing less than Christ Church Spitalfields, by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to find out that Robert Shackleton, the last owner, left not that long ago. There are pictures floating around the internet of the house as it might have looked as a private residence/ location for hire. And he didn’t move that far, only to number 12 Princelet street. That one is on sale right now: you can see what it looks like here, and here are even more pictures.

You need deep pockets, though; the price is a cool £4 million.

If that’s a bit too much money, you can actually rent out number 13 Princelet Street. Four night will set you back £1412, but the house sleeps 6 people. So that works out at under £60 per person – cheaper than most London hotels!

Rustic bathroom

And it does have all modern conveniences, unlike the slightly rustic facilities at 4 Princelet Street.

But fear not, it’s more private than you’d think.

Plenty of storage, too!