Barrie Wentzell
The top-floor flat at 23 Brook Street, Mayfair in London, once the home of the man seen by many as one of the greatest guitarist in rock history, Jimi Hendrix, is to open to the public on a permanent basis.
The property - which he referred to as "the first real home of my own" - has undergone a £2.4m two-year restoration with the aid of the Heritage Lottery Fund and private donations, and will open its doors to create a double museum to both Hendrix and another celebrated former occupant, George Frideric Handel, on February 10 2016.
Hendrix, who died in a hotel in Notting Hill in 1970, aged 27, from an accidental drugs overdose, lived at the third-floor, £30-per-week (the equivalent of £364 today) flat with his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham for approximately a year, in-between trips abroad, after moving in on July 4 1968, the same year he released 'Electric Ladyland'.
Rex
At the heart of the Hendrix flat will be the main living room and bedroom, restored to how they would have looked when Hendrix was living there. Among the exhibits will be previously unseen or rarely-seen images of Hendrix taken at the flat and in the local area. Also on display is his Epiphone FT79 acoustic guitar, which he bought in New York. The flat will also include a new state-of-the-art studio for teaching and holding concerts.
[Video above of Jimi Hendrix in a London flat in 1968 playing acoustic guitar]
The German-born composer George Frideric Handel lived at number 25 Brook Street for 36 years, writing many of his greatest works there, including the Messiah, dying in his bedroom in 1759, aged 74.
Both homes are owned by the Handel House Trust, who have been using the Hendrix flat as an office, only opening it occasionally to the public.
Tickets will go on sale on November 2. For further information, click here.
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