A house in which Jimi Hendrix lived in for several years in London is being opened up to the public for an exhibition, Hendrix in Britain from 25 August – 7 November. The house, located at 23 & 25 Brook Street in Central London, was where he shared a top floor attic flat with his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham between 1968 and 1970.
In no mean feat of coincidence, the house has also been resident to another famous musician, German composer George Frideric Handel, best known for composing the oratorio the Messiah. Handel lived in the house just off New Bond Street in the 1700s, dying in the first floor bedroom in 1759, while Hendrix took one final trip in a hotel down the road in Notting Hill in 1970.
It became the Handel Museum in 2001, but is being temporarily vacated for the duration of the Hendrix exhibition which will feature memorabilia and archive photographs and film. The museum’s director, Sarah Bardwell, says Hendrix was aware of the connection and had indeed picked up a few Handel records at nearby shops; “After moving to Brook Street in 1968, Hendrix learned of the Handel connection with the building and headed to One Stop Records in South Molton Street and HMV in Oxford Street to pick up whichever records of Handel music he could find.
