Handel & Hendrix in London has begun a £3m project to restore Handel’s London home and launch new exhibitions about the German-British Baroque composer, as well as the rock legend Jimi Hendrix, who lived in the flat next door.
Handel & Hendrix in London cares for and presents to the public the homes of the two musicians – George Frideric Handel lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759, while Jimi Hendrix moved into number 23 in 1968.
Once complete, the project will enable the public to explore all of Handel’s house for the first time by restoring the basement and ground floor. Called the Hallelujah Project, the £3m works will recreate Handel’s basement kitchen, restore the ground floor parlours in which Handel would receive his guests and restore the front façade of 25 Brook Street so visitors can enter Handel’s home through his front door.
When the museum reopens in May this year, new features will include historic rooms presented as they might have been in the 1740s and recently acquired works of art, creating a collection representative of the more than 100 works of art Handel had hanging in Brook Street, as well as new exhibitions about Handel’s music and a mixed reality audiovisual display about the writing of Messiah in the room in which it was composed.
Visitors will be able to hear live music performed in the rooms in which it was written and sometimes performed, and the museum will also host concerts. masterclasses and exclusive private events.
“Handel’s home has been recognised as a monument of great importance since the mid 19th-century, however, this did not protect the building from unsympathetic development,” said Simon Daniels, director of Handel & Hendrix. “As the composer Algernon Ashton bitterly complained in the press ‘the beautiful old house, which was splendidly preserved, has been spoilt beyond recognition.’
“Restoring Handel’s house to its original appearance was an idea revived by musicologist Stanley Sadie in 1959. After 63 years, the Hallelujah Project will finally realise this noble ambition and ensure 25 Brook Street is an engaging, accessible and permanent testament to the fact that London was home to one of the world’s greatest ever composers.”
Jimi Hendrix’s flat in 23 Brook Street was restored and opened to the public in 2016, featuring exhibitions about the musician and furnished as it would have been when he lived there. Hendrix entertained and collaborated with other 1960s rock icons at the flat, and described it as “my first real home of my own.”
As part of the Hallelujah Project, the Hendrix experience at Handel & Hendrix in London is being expanded, with a new exhibition exploring Hendrix’s legendary guitar technique. Visitors will also able to walk up and down the stairs to his flat for the first time, passing the spot where George Harrison famously had to step over one of Hendrix’s other visitors who had passed out en route to the exit.
Here Attractions Management speaks to Daniels about the highs and lows of this unique project.
