Imagine living next-door to Handel and Jimi Hendrix. You’d have Handel blasting his music at you throughout the day and Jimi shaking the walls at night. You’d be forever banging on the wall trying to get some peace and a bit of kip.
The Jimi Hendrix flat
The tour begins at the top of No.23 where Jimi lived. You will immediately know it’s Jimi’s house when you step through the door because they start blaring his music at you. It doesn’t really look like a flat anymore because the doors have disappeared and some of the walls have been knocked through so you can’t see his kitchen, his bathroom, or any of that stuff. It’s literally just his messy bedroom and a two-room museum full of video screens and info boards – that’s it. It’s not unlike walking through the pages of a music magazine.
Whatever Jimi spent his money on it certainly wasn’t the decor because his bedroom looks like the back room of a jumble sale. They’ve got his red bed in there (basically just a mattress on the floor), rugs on the walls, rugs on the floor, big feathers on the fireplace, a Bakelite-style telephone and old cigarette ends slowly burning down in the ashtray. It’s pretty easy to imagine him sitting on his bed strumming his guitar because you can hear him playing it. (They’re playing some domestic sound effects out of the speakers, which is a nice touch.)
That’s pretty much it for the Jimi Hendrix flat. If you’re a fan then you’ll be happy you’ve seen it, and the decor might kindle a few memories if you lived through the sixties (assuming that you can actually remember the sixties, of course) but for everyone else it’s just twenty minutes of listening to his tunes before crossing over into No.25 where Handel lived.
German composer George Handel
I found this house much more enjoyable because I’m at an age now where I don’t mind listening to a bit of classical music, and Handel is ranked at No.3 in my all-time list of favourite German musicians behind David Hasselhoff and the Scorpions. He used to live in London whilst he was writing music for George II and he ended up getting buried him in Westminster Abbey – that’s how much he loved the fella.
His tunes are very jaunty and jolly, it’s happy music – sunshine music – if your kids are fighting then play them a bit of Handel and five minutes later they’ll be hugging each other like nothing happened. He was probably the cheeriest composer of all time and the last time I came here it was quieter than a library, but they’re actually trumpeting his tunes through the rooms today which is a huge improvement.
Unfortunately you never really get the feeling that he ‘lived here’ because it’s just the walls and creaky floorboards that survive from his time. The structure of the house is all original but the decorations have been shipped in from other places. They’ve hung up some old oil paintings and placed a few instruments around the place, but the only period furniture on show is a four-poster bed. There’s no dining room in it, and the parlour and kitchens were both stripped out to make way for the street-level shop.
All that’s left are a couple of music rooms and a bedroom but maybe you’ll get lucky and hear a performance in the rehearsal room. Check out their website before you go to see when they’re putting on a concert.
If you enjoy this then try 18 Stafford Terrace (travel from Oxford Circus to High Street Kensington by underground); Benjamin Franklin House (walk it in 20 mins or catch a tube from Oxford Circus to Charing Cross); Charles Dickens Museum (walk it in 30 mins or travel from Oxford Circus to Russell Square via tube) and Dr. Johnson’s House (catch a tube from Oxford Circus to Temple). The most stirring place to listen to a bit of Handel is inside Westminster Abbey (they play the Coronation Anthem on the audioguide whilst you’re standing by the altar). If you like classical music then try the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Royal Opera House. Cadogan Hall is also worth a try
