Friday, 24 February 2012

34 Montagu Square: by day.


Readahs will no doubt remember the mystery of the "John's office mystery"; there are many great photos of John, Yoko and Robert Fraser hanging out in this heavily wood-panelled room, but no trace of such a place exists now at number 34.
Subsequent to my last visit, I managed to track down a plan of the flat from 1954 (which, for various reasons partly connected to sheer laziness on my part, cannot be reproduced here), and armed with same, I headed back the other day to see if this locale could at last be pinned down... of which more in a minute.
First, though, and at the risk of repeating myself, I couldn't resist getting a definitive "then & now" of our old pal(s) the Two Virgins shot(s). Done in daylight, the location is obvious, were it ever in any doubt. (Incidentally (if, sadly, not interestingly), the structure visible through the window was once the kitchen of the whole house, before it was split into flats.)
And another:


So to the old plan, which shows a partition wall in the downstairs kitchen which does seem to correspond to the wall in the office shots (see previous post). This whole area underwent massive renovation in the mid-90s, with a new shower built here (the walls of which can be seen in the "now" pic below).
Thus the best guess is that this was indeed the location of John's office (and note the apparently corresponding position of that door):


Though some doubt remains, that's probably it. Try not to worry too much in case it isn't.
Big thanks again to Peter for all his help.

2 comments:

  1. Hi. There is something I have always drawn attention to the last picture, where John are with a patch of bass drums Sgt Pepper. My question is whether that patch was owned by John or Ringo? because the apartment was owned legally Starr.

    Also I love your blog, I visit a while but I had never enrolled untill now. I'm from Venezuela and a collector of British and American editions acetates of The Beatles. Greetings!

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