Kenwood: January 1995.

In January 1995, Andrew Hawkins, finding the gates at Kenwood open, took the decision to chance his luck and headed up to the house to see if he might be allowed to film the exterior. Lucky, really, because what he discovered was a building site, overseen by an amenable Irish foreman who agreed to give Andrew and his friend the grand tour. Thus, Andy's camera recorded the last gasp of the house as John would have known it - shortly thereafter the kitchen, sunroom and garage were demolished and rebuilt, and the first floor master bedroom and attic were gutted and reconstructed.
I will try and put the footage on the blog over Christmas, but in the meantime here, with a minimum of verbiage from me, are some screencaps and a bit of context.

ENTRANCE HALL - The doorway visible here led to the kitchen. Note too the large mirror, still in place:

KITCHEN - Split level, an upper "breakfast terrace" and lower cooking area:

Note the floor tiles, some of which were still evident:

LIVING ROOM - Note the ceiling:

DEN - Colour scheme still in place, 25 years later:

Back to the entrance hall, this time facing the main stairs to the upper levels:

MASTER BEDROOM:

EN-SUITE BATHROOM:

ATTIC: Again, compare the photo of John with the situation in January 1995; clearly the same:

ATTIC LIVING ROOM - Next to the studio room, John pictured here above. This room was where Pete Shotton recalled helping with the general concept for Eleanor Rigby:

ATTIC BEDROOM - Home at various times to Fred Lennon, Pauline Lennon, and even John and Cyn whilst renovation was going on in 1964:

ATTIC TANK ROOM - Home to John's semi-feral cats:

ATTIC CORRIDOR - A glimpse of the studio room at the far end:

SUNROOM EXTERIOR - I'm still not sure if this is a completely different structure, or simply the old sunroom with a new roof and fireplace installed:

SUNROOM INTERIOR:

POOLSIDE STEPS:

GARAGE 1:

GARAGE 2:

And there we have it, for nau. As mentioned, at some point before long the footage itself will appear here.
Finally, I'd like to express my thanks to Andy for his generosity in allowing me to use his film. Cheers, mate!

Kenwood: much attic.

Here's one of the hitherto unseen attic bedrooms in 2006. Which one (at that time there were three, including the former studio) is guessable thanks to Joe's video, which shows traces of the '06 decor still in place amid the renovation, including a tell-tale splash of red in the window alcove nearest the old studio room:


Compare the Lennon-era layout. Note that the wall dividing the windows (and rooms) had been demolished by the time Joe got there:


Inarreshtingly, the Beatles Book labelled the pic of John in the mirror as being from the room next to the studio; taking them at their word, that would mean (to state the numbingly obvious) this very location. And there does seem to be a fit: note the windowsill, and that angled "joist" (or whatever it is) - an exact match:


Outside, the view corresponds with a small bit of the other attic alcove, and the more substantial guest bedroom roof:


So another Kenwood location nailed. There he did squat. Try to contain yourself. Etc.
(Incidentally, this was also the location of the blue window (see posts passim), and that's not it in the mirror shot, which means it must have been installed post-June 29, 1967. Try further to contain yourself.)(AND FAIL, HUMAN.)

Kenwood: attic studio - 1967 & 2006.

This, sadly and happily, represents the peak of this thus far. On several different occasions vaguely contemporary photos of this room have been almost within my grasp (Joe Baiardi's wonderful and valuable vid notwithstanding), but in each case the photographer has decided that you seeing them would violate their essential etc., so unseen they remain.
None of this matters, but if it does, it is because in this room John (and Paul) wrote many of the most etc. songs of the 20th etc. right here! Next to the stuffed bunny!
As "then and now"s go, this is the tops. That bunny occupies the very spot. Oh yes. Or no.
A veritable trove has almost literally been inserted in my hard drive this evening (steady), and the results will, due to the fact that I am unemployed, be on here imminently. But this is the best one, mundane as it may be.
(This is how the room looked a few years back. Now not. So "then and thens" then.)

Kenwood: attic plans, 1995.

Clicking on the above will provide, as usual, a better view. By 1995, the attic had seen some renovation, most notably the installation of a small bathroom in what had been John's studio (room S1 above), and the same at the other end, with the stairs covered over, and a bathroom and storage space replacing what used to be yet another bedroom. The tank room, home to John's cats, had also been shortened to allow for a new staircase at that end. Compare with 1964, when John first moved in:


As has been seen, the kitchen and bathroom (Bath no. 3 above) were turned by John into his studio - at first for painting, but then for music, as the various tape-recorders, weird keyboards etc etc began to mount. Subsequent owners have used this space as a bedroom. Joe's video showed the whole area gutted, with John's studio space still intact, but all other rooms gone. Clicking on "attic" in the label cloud will lead to more (and probably too much more).

Kenwood: attic - June 29, 1967.

Yawn. Yet another June 29, 1967 attic shot... and this time in colour. How tiresome.
Seriously though, any "readahs" in the States should keep an eye out for pishy 60s fan mags; some of these, as the above shows, have fantastic unseen Kenwood "shittle". OK?

Kenwood: more June 29, 1967.

Another shot from June 29 rears its head, and a fine example too; John in a north-western corner of the grounds at Kenwood, fondling a pot plant (not for the first or last time, I'll bet). The photo comes from a February '68 feature in TeenSet magazine, which has a few other Kenwood piccies, though all those others have been seen before. This one of the attic likewise, but here just slightly bigger than the previously posted image:


Anyone familiar with Pete Shotton's memoir will recognise this room as the scene of an Eleanor Rigby inspired altercation; which may well have been what John was recalling in his final PlayBoy interview, when he talked of being hurt by Paul inviting songwriting contributions from whomever happened to be in the room, rather than from John exclusively; which is quite sweet, albeit childish.
Many thanks to Richard Morton Jack for the new pics.

Kenwood: attic, June 1967.

Beat Instrumental, the Beatles Monthly's sister publication, also covered the June '67 visit to Kenwood, and featured an article about the attic studio in its October 1967 issue. Click on it for a better view:


Many thanks to Richard Morton Jack for sending this in.

Kenwood: attic - June, 1967.

Yet another attic photo appears, this time showing the hitherto unseen end of John's studio, which turns out to have housed... yet another piano. Surprisingly enough.

Kenwood: attic layout, 1965-1968.

We have seen the photo of John with his outsize horn before - but, crucially, not uncropped - and it's the extra portion which, at long last, reveals how the attic was laid out, post-renovation, during the Lennon-era; something which has been a puzzle since the inception of this gibberish.
Pauline Lennon, who lived in this part of the house for at least a couple of months at the end of 1967, recalls staying in a bedroom which opened onto a living room. She also mentions the studio, and the upper attic itself, which was where John's felines were housed.
The shape of the window evident in the new photo means it can only have been taken in the attic, facing north - and the Partridge plan confirms this. John is, therefore, seen here with his back to the attic hall corridor, standing in the room next to the studio:


Thus, the layout of the attic would have been as follows:


One of the unmarked rooms above would have been the living room Pauline referred to - probably the room John is seen standing in. Compare with the 1964, pre-renovation layout:



The wall between the kitchen and bath no. 3 was knocked down to form a larger room, which became John's studio. (Incidentally, I also have a plan from 1995, showing Kenwood immediately before the huge round of renovation that occurred at that time, and the attic was still laid out as seen here - with the exception of a small W.C. and wardrobe against the south-east wall of what had been the studio. It's possible that this was part of the Lennon attic, too.)
As chance, a fine thing, would have it, Joe Baiardi's video captures the very spot where this photo was taken. Note that the attic was, of course, gutted at this point; the red lines indicate the position of the wall as seen in the photo of John:


Finally, the window as it looked from the outside in 2008. Notice there are two windows, which were bisected, internally, by a wall during the Lennon-era (and beyond, judging by the '95 plan):


So, there we have it; the layout of the attic, a mystery no more. Many thanks once again to Ron de Bruijn, and, as ever, to Joe Baiardi.

Kenwood: Ken Partridge plans, 1964 - part 3.

The attic area - ca. October 1964; marked on the plan "Left As Existing". This, of course, was where John, Cynthia and Julian lived for 9 months whilst the rest of the house was being renovated (and, in the case of the sunroom and possibly the whole north-west extension, constructed). (Cynthia remembers a friend coming to stay with them during this time, and her being highly amused that they were living in such a huge house - but only occupying a tiny part of it.) The kitchen and bath no. 3 areas were, ultimately, the site of John's studio.
In any case, for those that are interested in this type of thing, the plan is a fascinating document, though it doesn't solve the great mystery of how the attic looked by 1967. According to every account of the matter, as soon as the rest of the house was complete John then ordered a thorough makeover of the attic suite too; how that was is anybody's guess...or so I thought.
But then, Ron de Bruijn sent me a photo that suddenly made the layout clear. The following post will witter on about that.

Kenwood: attic studio confusion - part 498.

The layout and exact location of John's attic studio have proved hard to pin down. However, that "new" photo of John tuning up prompted me to go back and have a look at the other attic photos - and I immediately spotted something which I had previously missed. I was assuming that the photo of John with his foot on the piano must have been taken in a side room, as there is a speaker there which doesn't match the other photos - but then none of the speaker photos actually match - see picture 1 above. This must mean the speakers were movable - and they do seem to be attached to some kind of non-static platform.


It suddenly became clear that elements of the "John with foot on piano" pic were also visible in the photos of John at the left hand side of the studio room - see picture 2 above; you can see the radiator, a detail on the left hand tape recorder, the right hand edge of the small electric keyboard, and part of the stool he's sitting on when playing the guitar. Therefore that's not a side room - it's just a wider perspective on the left hand studio wall.


What this means is it should now be possible to place the location of John's studio more precisely. Again, I got it wrong before - I thought the studio was where the loft storage is in the 2006 plan above. However, it can't be. Comparing the Norman H Johnson 1913 plan (see previous posts), the location of stairs and windows was unchanged between 1913 and 2006. So the window evident in the "foot on piano" pic above must be the south facing one, otherwise there would be a staircase in the middle of the studio wall. Thus, John's studio would have occupied the southern end of the attic, as in the amended 2006 plan above.


This, inevitably, led directly to another conundrum; namely - that being so, where are the west facing windows? The answer must be that John's studio was really quite small - I'd guess that the "tape recorder" wall, evident in these photos, is only, at most, about 14 feet long, and so it comes to a halt before the first window. There is also clearly a wall on the right hand side - as the slightly wider perspective in picture 4 above shows. Therefore, the position and layout of the room would have been as follows:


This would also leave space for the albums, singles, gold records and guitars which various people have noted as being part of the studio - namely, in the space to the left of the piano. It would also explain Pauline Lennon's comment that the loft space itself was used to house John's various cats and their offspring - this would correspond to the small loft storage space. The layout of the other attic rooms remains a mystery - but with this in hand, it is possible to take a stab at how the rest of it might have looked; something for a (much) later post, you'll be relieved to hear. So, is this the last word? Don't be silly...but based on these photos, and the plans, I can't see where else the studio could have been...until the next revision, that is.

Kenwood: attic upgrade.

I recently ordered a magazine with the tantalising front page announcement "John At Home In 1967 - Rare Pictures"; well, how could I resist? However, as I suspected, the rare pictures proved to be oft-seen photos from the June '67 Bryce session. This one, however, is the pick of the pics; seen on these pages before in terrible quality, here it is well nigh perfect - and a genuinely rare shot to boot. On closer examination, some of the other photos do offer something new after all, being uncropped and therefore providing a slightly expanded perspective - I'll post these anon.

Kenwood: attic, June 1967.

Inferior quality ("shitty" could be justifiably used), and yet, for all that, a rarely seen attic studio variant from June 1967, and therefore well worth a look. He appears to be tuning up. You can boil Lennon-era Kenwood down to two rooms - the sunroom and the attic. Both the look and the sound of the attic continue to ripple down the years, of course, courtesy of primitive technology which once captured monochromatic moments on film and verbatim drollery on lengths of magnetic tape; fan photos, Leslie Bryce, bootlegged demos, Two Virgins and the like. There is a vivid contrast between the black and white photos taken in June 1967 by Mr Bryce and their occasionally glimpsed colour variations. Both are highly evocative, of course, but the intense complexion of the latter lends them an odd hyper-real quality which is quite in keeping with the phantom nostalgia which surrounds the Beatles and the 1960s in general. (I'm talking about people like me who weren't alive at the time.) Such oddly luminescent faux-feeling certainly permeates this blog, which many might regard as at least slightly silly. But I feel it is all harmless fun, or at least relatively harmless fun, and I wonder if the same reservations would be expressed about the close study of, say, Beethoven's sunroom, or Mozart's stash tin. The Beatles' ship sailed a very long time ago - all too soon, in the grand scheme of things, they will have passed beyond the realm of living memory; at which point all such nonsense will be history proper, not to mention proper history. The poor quality of the above pic somehow underscores this. Still, annoying to think that in a drawer somewhere this, and others of its ilk, must exist in perfect quality.
And just how many colour variants are there?

Kenwood: external and internal architecture, part 3 - more attic.

It's only when you view Kenwood from above that you get an idea of how it all fits together - it really is a very eccentric building. Back to the attic, and the odd double apex design that forms the roof, here highlighted at the northern and southern ends from the sides and above. Pauline Lennon's description of this upper area as it was when she lived there in 1967 is worth recalling at this point: "I was quickly installed in the attic suite. It consisted of a bedroom with wash handbasin opening into a small sitting room. Up here also was a large music room containing John's recording equipment where, to my amazement, several of the Beatles' much prized gold discs were strewn carelessly around as if forgotten. The music room also housed a huge collection of records. Additionally stored in the attic regions were a vast quantity of John's discarded clothes. Finally, the roof space itself housed the ubiquitous kittens which periodically emerged to run wild through the house soiling the top quality carpeting with 'little accidents'".