Handel Hendrix House

Handel Hendrix House stands on a quiet Mayfair terrace of Georgian houses. One of these, 25 Brook Street, was the London home of George Frideric Handel for the last 36 years of his life. The house next door, 23 Brook Street, became the London residence of Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s. The museum occupies the upper floors of both buildings, linking Handel’s composing rooms with Hendrix’s bedroom and recording space. The museum matters because it preserves the only surviving residence where Handel lived and worked. Almost all his major works after 1723 were composed or rehearsed here. The building also marks the only place in London where Handel and Hendrix both lived. A long campaign by Handel enthusiasts finally opened the museum in 2001, after decades of planning and restoration. Inside, visitors walk through restored Georgian rooms on the first and second floors of 25 Brook Street. The interiors are deliberately plain, using salvaged panelling and staircases to recreate the 18th-century look. On the top floor of 23 Brook Street, the bedroom where Hendrix slept and the small room he used as a recording studio have been recreated. The museum displays a collection of Handel memorabilia, including the Byrne Collection of several hundred items.