Kenwood: NME interview - November 28, 1964.

Secrets of the House of Lennon, apparently. This interesting document constitutes the first substantial bit of Kenwood related press; the interview was conducted there on Saturday November 28, 1964, and published a week later in the NME. (As usual, click on it and zoom in for a readable view.)
So, what "secrets" does it actually contain? From the vantage point of now, not a lot, although we do learn that one of John's cats was a gift from George, and that there was no gate on the property at the time of the interview. (According to a couple of people with close connections to the house circa '80s/'90s, the heavy wooden gate that John eventually installed, familiar from Reporting '66, was eventually removed, and sat discarded by the main entrance for years. Its ultimate fate is unknown, although probably landfill.)
This was pre-sunroom, too, so the mention of going through the kitchen would have either led them out the other side of the house, or through the dining room.
What else? The location of Julian's room is narrowed down a bit; it must have been either bedroom no. 3 or bedroom no. 4 on the Partridge plan - probably no. 4, as previously suspected. The Blue Room may well have been bedroom no.2:


The journalist also recorded an interview with John about Kenwood, for BBC radio's The Teen Scene - thus far unbootlegged, and therefore presumably lost. Still, all interesting stuff, and many thanks to Eric Nernie for sending it in.

In other "news", a close relative of manufacturer Kenneth Wood has been in touch: He's checked, and the story about Mr Wood owning and re-naming the property turns out not to be true after all. So, it remains a mystery as to 'oodunit and why...but possibly a tip of the hat to Kenwood House in Hampstead. Or not.
(A pity, though - this would have been the best chance of obtaining some pre-Lennon images of the place.)