Sunny Heights: July, 1976.

A couple of photos of Sunny Heights, former abode of the "Schnoz", taken by Guus Limberger in the summer of 1976. Not sure who owned the place at this time, or how much reconstruction had gone on:


Many thanks to Guus for these.

Sandbanks: Poole, Dorset.

Some photos of Mimi, taken in and around Sandbanks, and mainly dating from the 1970s.


Mini was usually good for an amusing quote or two about John. For example:"I've just quit reading the papers these days. Apple sends me his records, but I won't play them. And I've asked my friends not to tell me about them. The shameful album cover and that [erotic] art show of his. He's been naughty and the public doesn't like it, and he's sorry for it. Now he wants sympathy. That's why he's come out with all these fantastic stories about an unhappy childhood. It's true that his mother wasn't there and there was no father around, but my husband and I gave him a wonderful home. John didn't buy me these furnishings, my husband did. John, Paul, and George wrote many songs together sitting on the sofa you're sitting on now, long before you'd ever heard of the Beatles. Why, John even had a pony when he was a little boy! He certainly didn't come from a slum!" A pony, indeed. Also note the picture, obscured by camera flash, hanging on the wall below:


Mimi:"Everytime John does something bad and gets his picture in the papers he rings up to smooth me over. See that new color television? It was a Christmas present, but he had it delivered early. A big present arrives every time he's been naughty. I usually have a huge photograph of John hanging in the lounge. When he's a good boy, it'll go back up again!"
Errr...quite so.

Kenwood: Wood Lane and "ting".

Blog "readah" D Aston had business in the St George's Hill area last year, and couldn't resist a visit to the titular pile. He also got a photo of the sign for Wood Lane, upon which Kenwood squats, though whether there was a sign there in the shikshtiesh I know not.
Further evidence of the work that's been going on in the house and grounds for the last couple of years, and strange to think that, although it's certainly Kenwood, none of the portion of the house visible here existed in John's time:


The photographer is standing on the exact spot once occupied by the gypsy caravan; compare with the pic HERE.
I wonder what they are up to on the site of the old swimming pool. Maybe Joe Baiardi's latest video will shed some light:


Thanks to Mr Aston for sending his pics in.

50 Supermarkets Associated With The Beatles:...

No 50: Marks & Spencer, Marylebone Station. Right, this is getting absolutely stupid now. Nevertheless, if you ever find yourself in the aforementioned shop, buying sugar in one form or another, you might be surprised to realise that this is the very spot where the phone booth bit in the title sequence of A Hard Day's Night was shot. Or you might not.

50 Pubs Associated With The Beatles:...

No. 48: The Shakespeare's Head. Oh go oooon then. This pub, on Carnaby Street, served as an evening opener for John on at least a couple of occasions in 1963, according to Tony Bramwell in the book what he "wrote".


No. 47: Pizza Express. Not even a pub. What a ridiculous parcel of nonsense this is. On a theme of nonsense, it doesn't get more so than John's "I am Jesus" malarkey. To recap briefly - John, up for 3 days on speed 'n' acid, as you do, finally and comprehensively jumps that shark by deciding he is Jesus. Convening a meeting at the Wigmore Street Apple office, he (sorry, He) informs the others that this is his "thing". Non-plussed, the Fabs proceed to go for a meal, where someone or other approaches the Messiah and says "You're John Lennon". The big C responds "Actually I'm Jesus." Said bloke: "Really? Well, I loved your last album. Thought it was great". Tittersome stuff, no doubt.
This anecdote first saw the light in Pete Shotton's excellent autobiography. Interestingly, he's recounted the tale on at least two other occasions, both of which paint events slightly differently. In Spitz's error-fest, it sounds like John was actually experiencing some kind of mental/nervous breakdown, rather than a ridiculous, but essentially amusing acid inspired palaver. In the version recounted in Spencer Leigh's also excellent Tomorrow Never Knows, they don't go to a restaurant post-revelation, but rather to the pub. (You can see where I'm going with this, can't you?)
Tragic hairy palmed obsessive that I am, I couldn't help wondering where this restaurant or pub might have been. One contender, if it was a restaurant, might be Genevieve, a French establishment a couple of streets away from the Wigmore HQ. According to the Beatles' London, they came here in 1966 during a break filming the promos for Paperback Writer. It's now...you guessed it...the above Pizza Express (mmmmmmmm pizza).
But what if it was actually a pub? Eh? Well...


No 46: The Devonshire Arms. Withing stumbling distance of the Apple office, and a regular haunt of the "moptops" in 1963, this has to be a contendah.


No 45: The Pontefract Castle. Again, within stumbling distance, on the same block as the Wigmore Street office, and, fairly crucially, there in the 1960s. At the very least, this must have seen the arses of Apple employees on a goodly number of occasions, possibly literally.
Finally, there are those who now think that the following familiar pic, taken outside Kenwood, was actually captured on the very day of the Jesus incident, and shortly before Yoko arrived for the Two Virgins evening. Close scrutiny may provide some supporting evidence. Ahem:


I'm off for a stiff drink.

Kenwood: more entrance hall.

Always "n-n-n-nice" to see new pics o' Kenwood back in the day...and here are a couple hitherto not widely seen. These were taken, as regulah readahs will know, in the entrance hall (dark, "bok"-lined, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...). Note the "boks":


...and, more interestingly, that guitar again...:


The pic of Julian was used (I think) to sell the table visible behind him at auction not that long ago. More on that, inevitably, to follow.
Huge thanks to Mark Jones for sending the pics.

Mercury Theatre: then & now.

Above squats The Mercury Theatre as it was in the 1950s, and how it looks now in its present guise of unaffordable housing. Opened in 1933, the place was a small but venerable thesp-cranny, frequented by the likes of Eliot, Auden and O'Neill. But you don't care about all that, do ye? Oh no. And, I'm afraid to say, neither do I, because the most interesting thing about this place is, of course, that the Beatles fannied about with a parrot here during the Mad Day Out:


Having bade the bird and its wrangler a teary farewell, they proceeded to go berserk, smashing a sign off the wall and taking it outside, for some reason (or something):


The drainpipe remains:


...as do one or two other things.



More guff to follow, at some point (some of which may even be related to the ostensible subject of this blog).

Tittenhurst: then & now.

In brief, Ringo sold it to Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan in 1988, who proceeded to spend a, frankly, atrocious amount of wherewithal on gutting the interior, adding a whole new wing, constructing a bomb-proof swimming pool (I shit ye not), and generally doing all the things that one is not really supposed to do to a Grade II listed building. (The High Court had to step in to stop him going further, apparently.)
Anyway, above - the house in 1969, a few months before John bought it, and the same view now: the area under the terrace has been turned into a room. Speaking of which, here's how the Imagine errr..."turf" (as featured in the video) looks these days:


...and how it looked in the titular film:


The balcony, where the final pictures of the four of them together were taken, is long gone; that portion of the house has been turned into a new wing, because 50 rooms (or whatever it was) isn't really enough, is it? Clearly not:


An internal (fairly obviously, though nothing would surprise me) staircase (the camel photo possibly not there in the Lennon/Starr era)(nor anything else):


Finally, that bomb-proof swimming pool, together with the one that used to be there. An outdoor pool is generally regarded as a sign of wealth in the UK, but the old one looks positively spartan compared to the cash-fest that's there now. One reaches it, naturally, via an underground tunnel:


The Sheik died a few years back, and Tittenhurst now stands empty for much of the year, though there is a small army guarding the perimeter to ensure scum like me don't get a shufti.
Many thanks to JammyEye for the pics.

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.

Virtual Kenwood: more Virtual Sunroom.

Regular "readahs" may have been wondering what happened to the weird and wonderous virtual Kenwood "pwoject". The answer is that it seems to have run into technical difficulties, related to the fact that in order to produce this stuff, you really need something with the computing power of HAL 9000 ("I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I really can't allow you to produce any more renders of John Lennon's virtual bidet".)
However - good news, for once. Chris, the highly talented artist behind it all, assures me that the "pwoject" is close to being back on track, and that the attic studio is almost done, together with the 360 degree QuickTime sunroom. This will allow anyone who so desires to experience exactly what it would have been like to be a member of the genus Musca Domestica in Kenwood, back in the days when flies were flies, not like these modern flies which are rubbish.
Anyway, here's another view of the sunroom, showing an imagining of the murky unfashionable end:


Thanks to Chris at thebeatlesin3D (link under Friends & Neighbours).

50 Pubs Associated With The Beatles: ...

No.50: The Blue Posts. Actually, they never drank here, but they did walk past it a few times. Places The Beatles Walked Past A Few Times would be a stultifyingly dull blog (and one that I would no doubt follow avidly, and, indeed, author). However, the noteworthy (or not) thing is that they were captured walking past it by Dezo Hoffmann on July 2, 1963; in the famous shots taken in Rupert Court, the sign outside the Blue Posts can be seen hanging in the background:


Thrilling stuff, no doubt. The pub is, quite clearly, still there. Another then and now of the Court o' Rupert:


Anyway, onwards to:


No.49: The Golden Lion. They never drank here either. They possibly walked past it a few times. Places The Beatles Possibly Walked Past A Few Times would be an even more ludicrous excursion into the far reaches of tedium than the aforementioned Places The Beatles Walked Past A Few Times (or the potentially very large indeed Places The Beatles Never Walked Past). However, there is another connection; the story goes that back in the shikshtiesh, this pub was a place where, if one were a lithe young man with an interest in meeting other lithe young men, lithe young men might be met... and a certain Brian Epstein was a regular. But the Beatles themselves never came here.
No. 48: Actually, this pub thing is a ridiculous topic, and I am abandoning it. (Coming soon! "50 Places Where John Lennon Punched Someone Out." You think I'm joking? Dear God, how I wish I were.)

Kenwood: dining room, 1965.

Joe Baiardi has uncovered another shot of the dining room from 1965, which gives a little wider perspective. This corner, of course, provided the location for one of the most famous photos taken at Kenwood:


The house was re-vamped yet again shortly after this, in order to get rid of most of Ken Partridge's initial interior design; how that affected the dining room I dunno - the wall cupboard was moved to the main sitting room, as seen in Cathy Kelleher Sarver's photo from 1968, but no photos of this room (in the Lennon-era) post-1965 have surfaced as yet.
As has been previously noted at nauseating length, the long table from the dining room (an acquisition of Partridge's of which John actually approved) played a further part in Beatles history, after it was taken to Tittenhurst; in August, 1969, it was shown being huddled around by the Fabs, for what may well have been their final meeting (certainly their final photo session):


Anyway, the dining room at Kenwood didn't look that different in 2005; how it looks now is anyone's guess:


Thanks, as ever, to Joe.

Kenwood: latest views, part 3.

Another very familiar little bit of the grounds: the steps by the big old tree near the bottom of the garden, still looking much the same in Joe's recent pic above. Here's a side view:


Again, this same spot features in a few photos from 1965, including the famous one of John attempting to fly away (and let's not read too much into these things, for once):


However, looking at it from the other side, what's this? A new covered swimming pool has been built:


John was also captured on an old garden seat in this locale in 1967, appearing to stare right up it, disapprovingly:


Or something. Many thanks again go to Joe, and more to come anon.

Kenwood: latest views, part 2.

Moving around the house, and some more of the original place has been allowed to go - this time the windows on the first floor, which originally formed part of the master bedroom suite. These have been lengthened, and balconies added. It all now looks a bit out of proportion to me, and it certainly alters the look of this side of the house - one part previously to have survived more or less unchanged since the place was built around a hundred years ago. Compare, again, with Cathy Kelleher Sarver's snap from 1968. Ho, and indeed, hum.
Many thanks to Joe.

Kenwood: latest views, part 1.

Joe Baiardi has sent in some more shots of the house, taken during his recent trip to England-land, and these are quite revealing as to the latest state of play. First up, the front door; no major changes to the house itself - or, at least, no further changes beyond the major ones undertaken in the mid-1990s. The comparison shots are from 1968, above and below - what is vaguely interesting (or not, as always) is the re-appearance of statues around the entrance:


The tree, evident in many fan photos, where-in a generally dishevelled John is prodded out to converse/strike a pose with ver fanz in the vicinity of his entrance (missis), is now gone, having been replaced with a younger version:


I'm pretty sure the old one was still there recently; to be fair, it may well have had to be removed. Old trees in close proximity to houses are generally a bad idea. As Sepultura might have advised. Yet, it's another bit of the auld place now gone.
So much of this blog catalogues the gradual chipping away of Kenwood over the years, that it's "nice" to be able to report a bit that appears to have survived. I hadn't noticed before, but a portion of the (dare one say it) vaguely iconic pillars from the Lennon-era remains, embedded in the extended entrance that was put in during the 90s:


More to follow, on similar themes, inevitably. Many thanks to Joe for having the chutzpah to go and take the photos, and the generousity to let the rest of us see them.