Handel & Hendrix in London

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Handel (red brick building) & Hendrix (white plaster)

Handel & Hendrix in London is a museum at the homes of the musicians Georg Friedrich Händel (1685–1759) and Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) in the London borough of Mayfair . Handel lived at 25 Brook Street for 36 years, where he wrote many of his operas and oratorios , as well as the water and fireworks music . Hendrix, on the other hand, spent only a few but eventful weeks between July 1968 and February 1969 in his small apartment in the neighboring house at 23 Brook Street.

Both buildings have one of the famous blue plaque ( German  "Blue plaques " ), the left building the right for Hendrix, the responsible for Handel. The museum opened as the Handel House Museum in 2001 and has existed in its current form since February 2016.

history

The Handel House opened in 2001. The museum is supported by the Handel House Trust Ltd , an initiative of the musicologist and Handel researcher Stanley Sadie (1930–2005). The President of the Handel House Trust is the Finance Manager Christopher TB Purvis CBE, and Laurence Cummings is the Creative Advisor .

The Hendrix apartment was used as an office space for a long time, from 2000 also by the Handel House Trust. The restoration was planned, but the funds were lacking. The public had access to the apartment from 2006, but only on the “Open House Weekend” and in 2010 for twelve days during the Hendrix special exhibition in London . In 2014, a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled the museum to be restructured, the Hendrix apartment to be restored, a studio to be set up and the infrastructure to be improved for visitors. The opening was on February 10, 2016.

The museum is wheelchair accessible , has an elevator access to the rear of the building on Lancashire Court, and audible descriptions for the blind and visually impaired. It is open every day (except Sunday) and regularly hosts concerts of baroque music .

Handel House

Since English has no umlauts , the composer's name there was George Frideric Handel  - but pronounced as well as in German ([ˈhændəl /]). The German composer moved to London in 1712 and became a British citizen in 1727. He lived on two floors of 25 Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759. Almost all works written after 1723 were composed in this house. The preparations for the performances also largely took place in Handel's Dining Room , which is why the household items also included a range of instruments - including harpsichords , a clavichord and a house organ .

Four rooms were largely restored to their historical state, including Handel's bedroom and the dining room , in which the composer often rehearsed with singers and in which he also held informal concerts for friends and neighbors. Other rooms in the adjoining house were and are used for special exhibitions on various aspects of his life, his career and his artistic partners.

Hendrix Flat

Blue plaque on the Hendrix apartment

The Hendrix apartment on the upper floor of 23 Brook Street was found by his penultimate girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, and rented in June 1968 while Jimi Hendrix was in New York. He moved in there for a few days in July 1968 before returning to the United States for an extended tour. After that he took care of the furnishing of the apartment, buying curtains and pillows in the nearby John Lewis Department Store , as well as ornaments and knickknacks at the market on Portobello Road . He is said to have told his girlfriend that this was his first apartment of his own. In January 1969 there were numerous interviews and photo shoots, including in Hendrix's apartment, and on the 4th of the month the guitarist and singer appeared on the BBC Happening for Lulu TV show , but was taken off-air in the middle of the song Hey Joe and was banned from appearing on the BBC . Two legendary concerts followed in the Royal Albert Hall in February 1969 , and Hendrix returned to New York in March. His girlfriend lived in the small apartment for a while, but Hendrix never returned to Brook Street.

The bed-sitting room, in which Hendrix lived, invited friends and wrote new songs, in which he also gave numerous interviews, has been restored. A small permanent exhibition describes his work in London in the 1960s, his cultural and musical influence, his legacy.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Note: off-air = removed from the broadcast
  2. BBC : Jimi Hendrix is ​​pulled off the air on Lulu's show in 1969 , accessed April 14, 2018

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 46.9 "  N , 0 ° 8 ′ 45.6"  W.