Baroque ‘n’ Bass
Giants of two musical eras come together in Mayfair’s Brook Street at Handel & Hendrix in London as Jimi’s flat is opened after restoration
On Wednesday February 10th, the door to the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix’s (1942 – 70) Mayfair flat was opened to the public following restoration. The upper floor rooms at 23 Brook Street were separated by a wall and two centuries from the house of another musical genius George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) who lived on 25 Brook Street. Indeed, even when he lived in Brook Street, Hendrix claimed he felt the spirit of the Baroque master in the building and frequently hosted classical music students as they came looking for Handel’s rooms.
The £2.4 million pounds renovation project for Hendrix’s rooms has been funded from various donors and allows the visitor to step into the swinging sixties as the room, through recollections of his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham and other visitors, is laid out exactly as when the guitarist was in residence. Exhibits include his Epiphone acoustic guitar that was always within arm’s reach in the flat as well as his record collection (Hendrix did have and frequently listened to Handel’s music – especially the Messiah).
The core of this now joint museum still lies in the second floor music room and bedroom where Handel lived, wrote and rehearsed for 36 years; however adding to the Rehearsal Room (used for small baroque and classical performances) the new complex has The Studio for further classical and contemporary performances.
This small but remarkable building - Handels’s blue plaque outside was one of the first 16 put up in London while Hendrix’s was the first plaque to recognise a rock musician – is well worth an hour when perusing the gross materialism of Bond Street gets boring.
Enquiries: Handel & Hendrix in London, 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1K 4HB / 0207 4951685 / http://handelhendrix.org/