J. W. Lennon, Esq., M.B.E., Kenwood, Wood Lane, Cavendish Road, St George's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey.
Monday, 6 September 2010
Chiswick House: then & now - part 2.
Moving right along, the Paperback Writer promo, filmed on the same day as Rain, in the, frankly, disgusting grounds of Chiswick House. (I jest.) Again, it is rather strange to be confronted suddenly with the '66 set, in aspic, as it were; but there, rather wonderfully, it is, and you are. The statue garden served thus, and there they remain:
John was also shown having a bit of a lie down on the above spot, and to the right is a present day Beatle-eye-view, taken from that perspective; you can see the Rain cedar tree off to the right, and Chiswick House itself straight ahead - as could they:
Back to the conservatory, now stripped of plants in this central section, but the raised bit on the floor, upon which Ringo squats, remains:
Outside the main entrance to the glass building, the Fabs were filmed on a bench immediately to the right, leaning forward in sequence (as if nauseated):
Finally, and not before time, the Socrates-looking-mofo from the very start of the remastered PW clip, as seen in Anthology, in situ still:
If you are in or about London, and stuck for something to do on a fair-weather day, I thoroughly recommend a trip to Chiswick House, in and of itself. It's a beautiful place, and all the Beatle stuff is really just icing on the cake/cherry on the pie/chutney on the curry/paper party hat on the chihuahua.
Etc.
Gracias again to that Beatles' London book.
Great blog entries on Chiswick House. I look foward to visiting the place. The good news is I can take the family and not even have to mention anything about the Beatles connection....they will never know, never know (insane laughter).
ReplyDeleteThanks for these (Parts 1 & 2). I visited Chiswick House a few weeks ago and it looks wonderful - £8m of our Lottery Money well spent in restoration.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I didn't have the Fabs' Chiswick House photos as a reference, and was working on a vague recollection of the Rain and Paperback Writer videos. I shall have to go back.
Do you happen to have a link to the two vids in question. Sad to say I've never seen them?
ReplyDeleteBrilig - I did that, taking along a friend who's not into the fabs. But you need to be careful - there's a Beatles in Chiswick House poster in the Conservatory which gives the connection away.
ReplyDeletermcg - do a search on YouTube for PW and Rain and you'll find the promo films.
ReplyDeleteI wish I made a trip to Chiswick when I lived in London (18 years ago).
ReplyDeleteThat's for posting these as I feel like I was there.
Trivia: think these two vids are the first public appearance of Paul's chipped front tooth, as he just had a moped accident up at his father's house up on The Wirral. I assume he since got the tooth fixed.
ReplyDelete