Kenwood: more then unt nau.

Another splendid "new" December '68 shot, and I shall manfully resist the temptation to pussy-related punnery.
This, as regulah readahs will shurely kno, is the thrilling location of the bottom of the garden steps location, as captured from the opposite angle by Cathy Kelleher Sarver a few months prior to the above pic:

And the same spot now: note the tree, which has (fairly obviously) survived, and the newly constructed indoor swimming pool on the right, topped with grass:

The interior:

Finally, another good new 'un of the pair oot and, indeed, aboot in the "grunds":

Gratitude yet again to Sara from MTBFR.

Kenwood: more 1965 action.

A new shot (new to me at any rate) of John on the steps at Kenwood in 1965. Well done that man Joe Baiardi for tracking this un down.

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 6.

Near the western perimeter of the grounds sat the greenhouse, familiar from June 29, 1967, when John decided to do the dead Che, a few months before Che himself did, on John's birthday, October 9, 1967. But I digress:


The greenhouse gradually fell into a state of disrepair throughout the 1980s, eventually being demolished, inevitably, during the wholesale reconstruction in the mid-90s (Rubbish - as it turns out, the thing was still there in 2006, though it's now gone (I think)). Not far from where it stood, the north perimeter steps can be found, leading up past the old swimming pool to the side of the garage; they, at least, are still there, just about. This is how they looked in the summer of 1968, as captured by Cathy Kelleher Sarver:


As previously seen, John and Yoko were also caught in that very locale, out for a stroll in December, 1968:


The next photo in this sequence, taken having climbed the perimeter steps, answers another question about the Lennon-era house. I'll deal with that in the following post.

Many thanks again to Cathy for taking these pictures, and to Lizzie too.

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 5.

Having gained access to the house, Cathy went walkabout, as you would. The most striking thing about this latest batch of her pics, is how wild and overgrown the grounds had become during the latter Lennon-era. Compare with the recent Joe Baiardi video (posts passim), which shows everything carefully pruned back; most of the barely managed vegetation was removed in the mid-90s. (I guess, judging by the state of it now, that Kenwood must still have a full time gardener - probably more than one, too.)
I've spoken to someone who grew up in the house in the '80s, and he remembers this lower portion of the garden as being almost completely untamed by that point, a magical place to his friends and him.
He has also been back since, and feels that a good deal of this magical quality that possessed the house and grounds disappeared during the mid-90s renovations, along with the triffid-like flora, the sunroom and the garage.
So it goes.
Anyway, the garden seems to have grown more feral the farther away from the house one got.


The steps are familiar from the 1965 shots...but everything (and I do mean everything) has become a good deal shaggier in the interim:


This pond is a new feature to me; note the ornamental carving. (I have no idea if it is still there, but I gather that the swimming pool has recently been moved back to its original position, and a new ornamental pond sits beneath John's old perch outside the sunroom):


Finally for this lot, a flower garden, somewhere in Kenwood:


I'm running out of ways to say thank you to Cathy and Lizzie. More shots of the garden, and exterior of the house to come.

Kenwood: glasshouse & potting shed.

Partly due to lysergic-induced laissez faire, and partly because of the fact that there was no point fighting it, John began to occasionally leave the gates at Kenwood open, allowing fans to wander in at will. A few knocked on his door, but most skulked in the nether regions, leaving graffitied messages of devotion (to Paul) on his potting shed door, and smashing the windows of his greenhouse.
These two structures, tucked away at the bottom of the garden by the foot of the north perimeter steps, survived to the mid-90s, though the greenhouse (or glasshouse) was in a state of complete disrepair by that point. This section of the grounds was also allowed to go its own way during the 1980s, being left largely untended and inevitably becoming wild and overgrown in the process. The major 90s renovation saw the whole area cleared, and at that point the greenhouse also went the way of the weeds.

Kenwood: more June 29, 1967.

...and as if on cue, a "new" June 29 shot appears; a particularly splendid example it is too. Though it's a mistake to read too much into these things, it does at least seem to encapsulate the sense of isolation reportedly felt by John at Kenwood. Either that, or he is "doing a guff".
At any rate, this pic allows the exact placing of those other photos of John sitting in the grounds. I'd thought these were taken right at the bottom of the garden, beyond the path, but in fact the garden chair was on the path itself. The bank behind him was much more overgrown in those days - the whole area was cleared in the mid-90s. Joe Baiardi's video captures the spot, and shows that the oak tree visible in one of the pics is still present and correct:


In other "news", Sara's blog has turned up another account of a fan visit to Kenwood, which is worth a look.

Kenwood: 1965.

Three Whitaker upgrades, from on or about the steps in the garden at Kenwood, 1965.

Kenwood: 1965.

Two more Whitaker shots from the bottom of the garden at Kenwood, 1965 - and the first one printed the right way round this time. Thanks to Joe Baiardi for these.

Kenwood: grounds, 1968 & 2008.

John and Yoko in December 1968 on the back garden steps behind Kenwood, and what I reckon to be the same spot from Joe Baiardi's video from last year.

Kenwood: 1965.

Here are some mainly quite familiar pics taken in the grounds of Kenwood in 1965 by Robert Whitaker. The quality of reproduction varies, but the quality of the photographs is high.
Thanks to Child Of Nature´s rather good blog for originally scanning some of this material.

Kenwood: grounds - 1965 & 2008.

I just realised that I have got my Bobs mixed up - these shots from the garden aren't Freeman, but Whitaker. Shows how much I know. Anyway, he has, quite artfully, managed to avoid getting Kenwood itself in any of these photographs. We can see from Joe's video how large it looms (that is the same wall, as it turns out), so this was clearly deliberate. I wonder if that was his idea, or if it was John who told him to keep the house out of it for some reason, obvious or otherwise.

More garden: 1965.

I have a feeling that at least one of these has been printed the wrong way round...an occupational hazard when dealing with Kenwood pics, and one that has resulted in much "wacky shit" on these pages. The auld wooden bench at the bottom of the garden, as seen in pic 1, was also glimpsed a couple of years later during the June 1967 photo shoot. Try and contain yourselves.
Thanks to Joe Baiardi for his contributions.

Kenwood: outbuildings, June 1967.

More Bryce pics of John in the sheds at the bottom of the garden at Kenwood. The second, and generally more shagged of these was probably the one referred to as a "stable" in the 1964 NME interview.