Friar Park
Friar Park | |
---|---|
General information | |
Architectural style | Gothic revival |
Town or city | Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire |
Country | England |
Completed | 1895 |
Owner | Olivia Harrison |
Friar Park is a
Overview
The main house is
Reports claiming that the building has 120 rooms were denied by current owner Olivia Harrison, while speaking to NPR Fresh Air in March 2004, at which time she said that, while she didn't know know many rooms there are, 120 is an over-statement.[12]
Since the early 1970s, the property has become synonymous with the former
The rumours and tabloid press reports claiming Harrison put the property up as collateral in order to fund the
History
The Friar Park estate was owned by
George Harrison and FPSHOT
In early 1972, Harrison installed a
In addition to Harrison's solo albums,
Besides the records by Harrison or artists he produced, the studio was also used by Shakespears Sister to record their 1992 album Hormonally Yours.[19]
The gardens
In the foreword to Harrison's 1980 memoir
Friar Park once had extensive gardens and water features that were designed by Henry Ernest Milner for Crisp,[20] including a grotto, and stones just underneath the surface of the pond (providing a walking-on-water illusion). The majority of the gardens that once existed at Friar Park are long gone, having been on land that is no longer part of the estate, or on land that was overgrown with mature trees, or was repurposed. The Rockery to the northwest of the mansion includes a sandstone replica of the Matterhorn[21] Reflecting Crisp's sense of humour; among the statuary is a friar holding a frying pan with holes in it, and a plaque reading "Two Holy Friars". The year Harrison and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, moved in, he was photographed among four garden gnomes located on the main lawn for the cover of All Things Must Pass, and again with his father Harry six years later, with the photo appearing inside the gatefold cover of Thirty Three & 1/3.
Harrison immortalised the grand building and its surrounds in his 1976 song "Crackerbox Palace". Contrary to popular belief, George Harrison never referred to his estate as "Crackerbox Palace." Instead, Crackerbox Palace was the nickname for the California home of comedian Lord Buckley which was the actual inspiration for the song and its title. This rumour began as a consequence of George Harrison filming a promotional film (Crackerbox Palace) at the estate for the sake of convenience.[22] The All Things Must Pass track "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)" was inspired by Friar Park's history, and the lyrics of later songs such as "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" and "The Answer's at the End" directly quote from the many carvings around the property.[23] His humorous video clips for the likes of "Ding Dong, Ding Dong", "True Love", and "Crackerbox Palace" were all shot within the gardens and grounds of Friar Park, as were the album covers for some of his FPSHOT-recorded Dark Horse acts − Splinter's The Place I Love and the album Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India being the most obvious.
Harrison restored very few (not all, as is often incorrectly reported) of the remaining gardens, essentially limited mostly to the Alpine Garden, Topiary Garden, Dutch Knot Garden, Japanese Garden, as well as glass houses and lake system.[21] Until his death in November 2001, he loved tending to them personally − an activity that a visiting Rolling Stone journalist in 1987 deemed a "decidedly un-rock-star-ish pastime"[24] − and among the groundskeepers were his older brothers Peter and Harry. Harrison's son Dhani remembered: "He'd garden at night-time until midnight. He'd be out there squinting because he could see, at midnight, the moonlight and shadows, and that was his way of not seeing the weeds or imperfections that would plague him during the day."[25] Talking of the tranquility he felt at Friar Park, Harrison once said: "Sometimes I feel like I'm actually on the wrong planet, and it's great when I'm in my garden. But the minute I go out the gate I think: 'What the hell am I doing here?'"[26]
Security concerns
During Crisp's time at Friar Park, the grounds were open to the public once a week during the Spring and Summer. Following the murder of John Lennon, Harrison's Beatles bandmate, in December 1980, the gates were locked and security features such as fences and video cameras installed. Despite these measures, an intruder, Michael Abram, broke into the residence in the early hours of 30 December 1999, attacking Harrison and his wife Olivia, leaving Harrison with five stab wounds and a punctured lung.[27][28][29]
See also
- 12 Arnold Grove, Harrison birthplace and boyhood home
- Kinfauns - earlier Harrison home
References
- ^ Clayson 2003, p. 299
- ^ "Friar Park, Henley". Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- ^ "Friar Park, Oxfordshire, England". Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- ^ "Friar Park, Henley, England". Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ^ Historic England, "Friar Park (House) (1046980)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 December 2016
- ^ Historic England, "Friar Park (Garden) (1000504)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 December 2016
- ^ Historic England, "Lower Lodge in Friar Park (1369499)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 December 2016
- ^ Historic England, "Middle Lodge in Friar Park (1046982)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 December 2016
- ^ Historic England, "Upper Lodge in Friar Park (1369500)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 December 2016
- ^ Historic England, "Lower Lodge entrance walls and piers, railings gates and corner turret in Friar Park (1046981)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 December 2016
- ^ Historic England, "Railed wall piers and gates at Middle Lodge in Friar Park (1218742)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 December 2016
- ^ "Olivia Harrison". NPR.org. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
- ^ Clayson 2003, p. 300
- ^ Leng 2006, p. 226
- ^ Clayson 2003, p. 371
- ^ "The 10 Films You Should Have Heard of: Monty Python's Life of Brian", Whitaker's Little Book of Knowledge, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
- ^ a b Harrison 2002, p. 67
- ^ Leng 2006, p. 126
- ISBN 9780698411043.
- required.)
- ^ a b Pearson, Dan (17 August 2008). "Dan Pearson takes a tour around the Victorian gardens renovated by the late George Harrison and his widow, Olivia". The Observer. London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
- ^ Harrison 2002, p. 354
- ^ Harrison 2002, pp. 208, 280, 300
- ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002), p. 136.
- ^ Harrison 2011, p. 368
- ^ Harrison 2011, p. 357
- ^ Lyall, Sarah (31 December 1999). "George Harrison Stabbed in Chest by an Intruder". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2008.
- ^ "Beatle stabbed after break-in". the Guardian. 30 December 1999. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ "Covered in blood, George Harrison thought to himself: 'I truly believe". The Independent. 20 October 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- Bibliography
- Clayson, Alan (2003). George Harrison. London: Sanctuary.
- Harrison, George (2002). I Me Mine. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
- Harrison, Olivia (2011). George Harrison: Living in the Material World. New York, NY: Abrams.
- Leng, Simon (2006). While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard.
Further reading
- Cardinal, Scott (2014). Friar Park: A Pictorial History. Campfire Network.
- Cardinal, Scott (2014). Friar Park: 1919 Estate Auction. Campfire Network.
- Cardinal, Scott (2017). Greetings from Friar Park (Henley-on-Thames): An archive of postcards celebrating the estate of The Beatles' George Harrison. Campfire Network.