Originally licensed in 1793 and named the Feathers since at least 1826; it added Prince of Wales to the name in 1968. The pub has many historical and literary credentials: the Chartists met here in October 1841 to hear an address on "the present distress of the country". In the twentieth century in his 1929 novel The Midnight Bell, Patrick Hamilton offered a portrait of a London pub in the 1920s with its staff and regulars, thought to be based on this pub.

Dick Barton, the popular radio detective serial of the 1940s with its dramatic theme music and daily cliff-hangers, was planned here in the presence of Noel Johnson who took the title role. A few decades later a father from Woking took his young lad to a talent contest in the pub. The lad was Ricky Parfitt and his "spotting" at the talent contest was the start of what was to become Status Quo.

So, the pub has its place as one of the most important in British musical history!