Rishikesh: then unt now.

Hello everybody. Firstly, thank you to all who have written/commented over the last 3 years, and apologies for the lack of response. I remain extant. The blog was blown off course by what might be deemed "life shit" (or "shite"), and so it remains.
What have I been up to? I suppose the big news is that, ironically, one dreich morning during this hiatus, I finally got to visit Kenwood. By which I mean, I had an hour to wander through the house and round the grounds. More, and there could hardly be less, to follow. (Possibly.)
In the meantime, what better way to etc. than with our auld mate the "then unt now"?
Mark Lewisohn was in India recently, and took a number of photos at what's left of the Maharishi's Etc., including the one on the right above, the very spot where they initially White Albumed, at least partly.
Thanks to him, and to you.

Kenwood: December, 1968.

Master bedroom, Kenwood.

36 years.

Kenwood: On film, June 1968.

Some of this is on the blog already - but the real find comes around half-way through: the kitchen at Kenwood, on film! Yoko prepares something macrobiotic whilst John hugs a feline. For the first time it's possible to see how the kitchen and the sunroom join up. Please, for the love of God, try to contain yourselves.

This comes courtesy of Revolver TV over on YouTube, who have been gradually doling out interesting, unseen bits and pieces for a while now, and one wonders if the long rumoured Kenwood home movies are going to appear soon. In the meantime, this is pretty, pretty good.

EDIT: There used to be a YouTube video above. Clearly, it has now been taken down. I managed to MP4 it, though, so good for me!

Kenwood: November 26th, 1968.

Sara over at MTBFR has posted a great (mainly "new") set of Kenwood pics. No point in me posting them all again here, but a couple of them can be used to further our flagrantly trivial ends. The above has been on before, but not in this resolution. Thus, note - Westinghouse Continental oven and Zal disinfectant:

What's that tome on the table?

Why, none other than Small Man of Nanataki by Liam Nolan:

Interesting this. The book was first published in 1966, and tells the story of a Japanese POW camp interpreter who helps the prisoners out of a sense of shared humanity. In 1960s Britain, there remained a lot of throwback WW2 anti-Japanese prejudice, and Small Man of Nanataki was, apparently, an attempt to counteract this. Can't "imagine" (oh fer Jah's sake stop it) what it would have been doing at Kenwood.
To see all the pics, go HERE.
(I can't remember where I got the oven pic - if you took it please get in touch for a credit.)

Kenwood: summer, 1968.

Too busy to post recently, but I'll gladly make time for these rather wonderful pics. This must be pretty close to the Two Virgins night - there are other photos circa then showing John in almost identical garb, post-India, happy/sad, who knows? These girls got a glimpse of Kennie, went inside, and particularly remember the smell of the place - John burnt incense non-stop, and would have returned from the sub-continent laden with the stuff.
But here they are outside the front door, a fantastic little moment in time:

Huge thanks to Christine (whose pictures these are) for her generosity in allowing me to post, and to Trish, and Julian Carr for sorting it out.
(These haven't been seen before, and are used with permission - please don't re-post without it. I just know I can trust you people!)

Montagu Square: late summer, 1968.

A splendidly candid dead o' night shot of a slightly startled John, on the corner of Montagu Place and Montagu Square, no doubt freshly dropped off by Antony or Shotton post-White Album session. Yoko must be just out of frame behind him.
It's perhaps surprising that more photos of the pair of them outside number 34 haven't surfaced; but possibly no-one really knew they were there pre-bust, and post-bust, they weren't.
Thanks to Eric Nernie.

Kenwood: expenses, May 1968.

The imminent Bonhams auction of entertainment memorabilia has a few Kenwood related goodies. It's possible that the vendor is none other than our old friend Pete Shotton, as the items include the scribbled lyric for I'm Only Sleeping as featured in his book, together with a table that, it is claimed, sat in Kenwood, and around which John and Yoko muttered at each other on the Two Virgins night (the only other person there being Mr Shotton), plus, most interestingly, the above; a detailed breakdown of John's household expenses for the month of May, 1968. At that time, John's live in "P.A." was none other than...you know who. Whatever, whether or not these items do come from Pete, the sheet provides another (in this case literally) valuable insight into life at Kenwood.
Given that you can multiply these figures by around 13 to gain a rough modern equivalent, it's clear that John ran a fairly profligate household - in modern terms, the expenses come to around 31,600 pounds! The garden alone was costing just over 1,000 a month (assuming this was a typical month), presumably most of which went on the gardener's wages: so he was probably on around 250 per week. The combined upkeep of Mimi, Cynthia's mother and the ignoble Alf was costing John around 4,600 per month. (Lil got a third of what Mimi and Alf got - with Alf getting most of all. One assumes this fact was not conveyed to Mimi.) John himself made do with around 3,250 in cash for "expenses" (and Lord only knows what they were).
(Also note around 1,600 for Cyn and her mother to go to Rimini on the Adriatic. Again, this may prove useful in attempting to pin down the Two Virgins chronology, something which thus far hasn't been done to anyone's satisfaction.)

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 9.

Another colour shot of the sunroom. For the hell of it, here's the same view by Leslie Bryce:


...and by Joe Baiardi, from a couple of years back:


The final three of Cathy's photos, all showing the west end of the house:


Yet again, a bit of new detail. Note the attic window to the right, which looked on to the "living room" up there:


Clearly different from the other one, this right hand window was blue in colour. (It's probably a safe bet that John was responsible for installing it.) The blue-hued one survived up till the mid-1980s, when it was replaced by a normal pane of glass.


And so there we have it. Huge thanks again go to Cathy Kelleher Sarver for having the chutzpah to get into Kenwood, the foresight to take a camera, and the generosity to let us see all these very evocative photos, all these years later. (And not forgetting Lizzie Bravo, without whom...)

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 8.

The front gate at Kenwood, summer, 1968. You'd think the gate would be as "iconic" (for want of a much better word) as the sunroom or the attic studio. After all, this is where the Yoof would congregate, and there must have been days when the heavy sliding gate was shut and stayed shut. Under such circumstances, what would there have been to do, other than a) get to work defacing as much of it with knife and ink as possible, and/or b) take a few snaps, as a memento of your day, standing in what was very likely drizzle, and occasionally being told to "fuck off" by Julian from the other side. (See some prior post or other for that particular tale).
But where are these snaps? It's odd that there has, to date, only been one photograph to surface of the gate (the one of Paul arriving), and that didn't show much. So, this one is most welcome; the first decent (not to mention colour) photo of the Lennon-era gate to appear.
Again, questions answered; that does indeed look like the sign later sold at auction by the gardener at Tittenhurst (apparently John took it with him when he finally sold up, and then passed it on):


...and a quick comparison with the same spot from a couple of years back. Note there isn't much left of the roof:


Happily, Cathy wasn't left outside, but found the gate wide open, as it often was at that time. Making her way up the curving road towards the house, she took a few photos as she went. First, this odd, raised bit of bricked up foliage, a "feature" or some such similarly despicable word:


And the same "feature", this time in relation to the house. The windows visible in this pic let light in on the Lennons none-more-60s "his and hers" (his 'n' hers, if ye must) basins on the first floor, and the attic studio on the second (UK speak):


The top of the drive, looking back down towards the gate:


..and the area around the front door, scene of many seen and so far unseen shots of a dishevelled, but seemingly almost always patient and amenable John, hanging out with those representatives of the Yoof who had the nerve to ring his doorbell:


To wit:


(To woo.) Plus, the same spot from a couple of years back. Note the hulking presence of the new garage to the right, and the completely re-built bit where the old garage was to the left:



Note too the rather forlorn sight of Cynthia's car, standing on its own.

Many thanks go again to Cathy Kelleher Sarver and Lizzie Bravo. (And another quick shout to Joe Baiardi for his contemporary pics.) The final batch of Cathy's photos coming soon.

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 7.

Cathy then walked up the north perimeter steps, which took her out at the side of the garage, overlooking the swimming pool. She got the above shot through a gap in the woodwork. As she says:"The two little heads that can just be seen through the fence are Julian and a "little girl from down the hill". The photo was taken from the car port."
I would never have spotted the "two little heads", but there they are. You can also just make out part of the "Psychedelic Eye" on the wall of the swimming pool itself.
I'd never noticed before, but some of the plans on these pages show an area of concrete to the side of the garage. Cars were one of John's big extravagances during the '60s, so this area was likely used to park any that wouldn't fit in the main garage.
You can just see the spot, from where the above photo was taken, to the left of the garage in the black and white pic below:


Once again, many thanks go to Cathy and Lizzie. Next up, the front gate, drive and some more views of the house.

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 6.

Near the western perimeter of the grounds sat the greenhouse, familiar from June 29, 1967, when John decided to do the dead Che, a few months before Che himself did, on John's birthday, October 9, 1967. But I digress:


The greenhouse gradually fell into a state of disrepair throughout the 1980s, eventually being demolished, inevitably, during the wholesale reconstruction in the mid-90s (Rubbish - as it turns out, the thing was still there in 2006, though it's now gone (I think)). Not far from where it stood, the north perimeter steps can be found, leading up past the old swimming pool to the side of the garage; they, at least, are still there, just about. This is how they looked in the summer of 1968, as captured by Cathy Kelleher Sarver:


As previously seen, John and Yoko were also caught in that very locale, out for a stroll in December, 1968:


The next photo in this sequence, taken having climbed the perimeter steps, answers another question about the Lennon-era house. I'll deal with that in the following post.

Many thanks again to Cathy for taking these pictures, and to Lizzie too.

St George's Hill: summer, 1968.

This little snapshot, again taken by Cathy Kelleher Sarver in the summer of 1968, answers a question that occasionally pops up on these pages: namely, how did Ver Yoof/Kidz get to Kenwood, when St George's Hill is gated and inaccessible to those without mountains of cash (or their employees/friends)?
The answer, as the above shows, is that the Hill may be inaccessible now, but it wasn't back then. As Cathy writes, this pic shows the "entrance into the St. George's Hill Estate. If memory serves you would take the road to the right to get to John & Ringo's homes." Thus, the curious could stroll into the grounds, and, if armed with the right kind of knowledge, up to Kenwood, through (or over) the gate, and so on and so forth.
I'm not sure when the gates and security at the Estate entrances were installed. Seems a bit off, however. Nor am I sure which entrance this is, as there are a few ways in. But it may well be the one off Brooklands Road (below as seen last year).


Many thanks again to Cathy and Lizzie.

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 3.

A colour pic of the bird table, as sported by the resolutely black and white Lennon, on June 29, 1967:


John (as has been seen) would occasionally stroll round the grounds, often in one kind of stupor or another, and converse with the gardener/fans/etc. Cathy's photos (as will be seen) provide the most comprehensive view of the Lennon-era grounds thus far. Thus...

Heaped gratitude to Cathy and Lizzie, once again.

Kenwood: circa late spring, 1968.

There really has been an embarrassment of riches from the direction of Sue Baker over the last few days. I'm embarrassed, anyway. Here's the last Kenwood related one (at least as far as I know); this must have been taken very close to the (alleged) Two Virgins evening in May 1968, again according to the hair.

And again, thanks to Bruno.

Kenwood: more from early 1968.

More pictures of John, outside the front door at Kenwood, have come to light (it's been a bit of an outside-the-front-door-at-Kenwood-drooling-frenzy today); three of these are from the same time as the pic posted earlier this morning, taken by Sue Baker.
And despite the blemishes of age, amazingly vivid they are too.
A hitherto unseen statue has appeared. Something is resting on the head of one of the others. John looks...about par for the course. He's carrying a drawing of some kind. The hall curtains are closed to the world.
Yes, very evocative, they effortlessly capture something of the intriguing, haunted quality that the house possesses:



Many thanks once again to an old friend of this blog and others, Bruno Dupont, for giving me the nod about these. Merci.

Kenwood: circa June, 1968.

Tis the Brunts! (Apparently.) Mr and Mrs Brunt were haulage contractors to John and Yoko, last seen on these pages proving good to their job description by hauling the caravan from Dorinish to (probably) Tittenhurst.
And here they are again with unknown others, outside the front door at Kenwood, posing in and around John's white Roller. You can see the entrance to the big garage on the left, the other end of which overlooked the swimming pool.
Dating this is a bit tricky; it's obviously not December, 1968, when John and Yoko were extensively photographed making their last stand at Kenwood, following several months chez Starkey at Montagu Square.
So I'd go for (circa) June of the same year, around the time that Smile and Two Virgins were filmed in the grounds, and just before the move to Ringo's Marylebone maisonette. From the home movies shot on the day of filming, it's clear the weather was more than mild enough for short sleeves.
Placing the above pic next to one of the many fan photos taken here gives an idea of the whole perspective:


The other point worth noting is that the area to the right was very likely the venue for the Rubber Soul cover shot:


Even this bit of Kenwood hasn't managed to escape the ungainly hand of renovation; the wall has been rebuilt, partly as a result of constructing a whole new garage in the mid-1990s.

Much gratitude goes again to Dennis Toll for these.

Kenwood: circa early 1968.

Always interesting to see a new Kenwood fan pic, even if it doesn't show any fresh detail. John assumes his customary position, to the right of the front door; probably taken early '68, just before India, judging by the mutton-chops and attire.
(A couple of pics are on the way showing the area outside the entrance in a bit more detail, also circa 1968. Try not to do anything silly under the weight of your excitement, Brunt fans.)
More new shots of the other "Beatle Belt" homes, from the same collection, can be seen on Meet The Beatles For Real (link under Friends & Neighbours).

Thanks to Mr Sileo for his correctional facility.

St Sophia's Church, London: July 11, 1968.

This magnificent church, of Greek Orthodox persuasion, served as the venue for "Magic" Alex's wedding, at lunchtime on July 11, 1968. The previous day, Alex had gone round the Apple office informing all and sundry of "imminent nuptials" - but no-one believed it. Thus, it took some frantic early morning phone calls to round up guests.
His two best men were Donovan and Winston, whose duties included crowning the bride with a double tiara of forest flowers, as you do. Also in attendance were Yoko, George and Pattie, amongst forty others.
Admirers of minutiae may well note that later this day, John went on to Abbey Road, where he oversaw the electric piano stylings of Nicky Hopkins on the single version of Revolution.


Thanks again go to Ian Drummond for sharing his archive.

Duke Street: Robert Fraser Gallery, 1 July - 3 August 1968; you are here.

Having just moved out (and not for the last time) of Kenwood, John and Yoko held one of their first media events at the Robert Fraser Gallery, then situated at 69 Duke Street. The newly public (not to mention pubic) pair marked the opening of John's exhibition, titled "you are here", by releasing, in the spirit of "Happening", 365 helium-filled balloons with the words, "I declare these balloons high":


Tags with the name of the exhibition were attached to the balloons. These also invited finders to write c/o the gallery, and any who did so got a letter and a badge from John. (Apparently replies from "ballooners" ranged from all good wishes to racist abuse directed at Yoko). John got the idea for the balloons from a childhood memory - he had found something similar as a boy:


The exhibition itself fitted right in with much of John's artistic endeavour that summer, being whimsy tinged with a hint of something sinister; a large white disc inscribed in the centre with a tiny "you are here", and a collection of charity boxes, seeking money for victims of polio, homeless canines etc. Jars of free badges with the name of the exhibition were also laid out.
The gallery was on two levels, with a small spiral staircase beside the front door leading down to the basement. For John's exhibition, the upper floor was (apparently) largely empty, with the exhibits displayed on the lower level.
However, the real point of the exhibition was hidden: Secret cameras filmed the reaction of attendees, with the resulting footage intended to form a film (never completed, though John had clearly viewed the footage when, on the Frost show in August, he humorously discussed the covert grabbing of as many badges as possible by certain exhibition-goers).
John also put out a hat, looking for a little personal charity:


Some students from Hornsey Art College donated a rusty bicycle, with a sarcastic note stating that John had clearly forgotten to include it; naturally, out on display the bike went, together with an example of John's footwear and the words "I take my shoes off to you":


A media frenzy ensued on opening day. Journalists were more interested in John's new paramour than any art. Kenneth Anger, the underground film maker, occultist and associate of Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil, appeared with sparklers and used them to pop as many balloons as he could.
Other more sympathetic souls were also in attendance, including the man who had introduced John and Yoko in the first place, John Dunbar, seen here on the right. He and Robert Fraser were, of course, frequent visitors at Kenwood.


The building and space which housed the gallery are still there, though now, inevitably, being used for something much more prosaic.
It's probably also worth remembering that at this point, according to the orthodox view, John & Yoko had only been together for little over a month. In that time they had produced Two Virgins (film & album), Film No 5 (Smile), collated the Four Thoughts and you are here exhibitions, done (for want of a better word) the Acorn Event at Coventry Cathedral, and completed Revolution 9. John had also worked on other White Album tracks (most notably the recently "released" (and utterly wonderful) long-form Revolution 1), and contributed to the theatrical adaptation of In His Own Write.
Plus they moved house.