Sometimes, when considering Kenwood, it is hard not to be reminded of the old one about the man who has gradually replaced every part on his bicycle over a period of 50 years, but still points at it and says, "I remember buying that bike half a century ago". And thus, believe it or not, the bit beyond the wall around the front of Kenwood. (As ever, click on it for a good look).
A couple of architects who worked on the kitchen area and the garage respectively, have very kindly responded to emails from me and provided valuable information. First the garage. As we have recently seen, this is the only part of the house which can claim a Tarrant connection. His firm built it, but didn't design it, in 1919. Well, I'm afraid another bit of Tarrant (and so in this case another bit of Lennon-era Kenwood) has bitten the dust. The original garage (the one that features in those famous pics of John and Julian by the Rolls) was demolished in 1995. The one that is there now is completely new - though the architect has done a very skillful job and it doesn't appear so. The original garage was much smaller: So there we go. Something similar pertains to the entire ground floor kitchen/sunroom/recreation area part of Kenwood. We know that the original sunroom is long gone, but so, it seems is the Lennon-era kitchen - and indeed, much of that whole part of the house. It was all demolished and rebuilt around the same time as the garage. The original kitchen was much smaller than the one there now - and much darker too, apparently. (This round of demolition/renovation also explains the noteably more integrated look that the north-western exterior of this bit of Kenwood has now, compared with the 60s). The more information that comes to light, the more of the original Kenwood shuffles off into history. A bad thing? In the grand scheme of it all (assuming there is a grand scheme) - no. As Simplicius (who was "heavily influenced" by Heraclitus) and J.W.Lennon, not forgetting the "densely melodic" Teenage Fanclub have all said - everything flows. Many thanks to those architects for taking the time to provide the new information.
UPDATE - Further examples of things I got wrong on display here. I won't point them out - for elucidation, read on Macduff.
I have been lurking here for several month now.I really love reading about Kenwood.
ReplyDeleteIt is just such a shame that some one has all but demolished it from the John era. Makes me so sad. I wonder if Julian has ever stummbled in to this...he may have some good input.