Tittenhurst Park

Coordinates: 51°24′23″N 0°38′04″W / 51.40645°N 0.63452°W / 51.40645; -0.63452
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tittenhurst Park
Map
General information
Architectural styleGeorgian country house
Town or cityBerkshire
CountryEngland

51°24′23″N 0°38′04″W / 51.40645°N 0.63452°W / 51.40645; -0.63452 Tittenhurst Park is a Grade II listed early Georgian country house set in 72 acres (29 hectares) off London Road at Beggar's Bush near Ascot and over the parish border into Sunningdale, both in the English county of Berkshire. It was famously the home of musicians John Lennon and Yoko Ono from the late summer of 1969 until August 1971, and then the home of Ringo Starr and family from 1973 until 1988. Starr sold the property to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, in 1989.[1]

Early history

Known as Tittenhurst Lodge in about 1876 (south of the central road).[2] Click for broader map and to enable varied magnification.

The present house dates back to 1737, although its fronts are largely c. 1830.

In 1869, the property was owned by

rhododendrons, an outstanding collection of which he built up at Tittenhurst, including one he named 'Mrs Tom Lowinsky'. Amongst Lowinsky's children who grew up at the park was his daughter, Xenia Noelle Field, the prison reformer and horticulturist, and surrealist artist Thomas Esmond Lowinsky
.

John Lennon

Lennon purchased the property after the sale of

Kenwood in Weybridge, Surrey, his earlier home with first wife Cynthia Lennon, because of its resemblance to Calderstones House in Liverpool, where he had spent time as a child. Lennon bought the house for £150,000 from the estate of Ron Blindell[4] who had purchased it from Peter Cadbury in 1964.[5] The estate included gardens, a Tudor cottage and servants' cottages.[1] He and Ono spent twice the purchase price on renovations, transforming the interior of the house to their liking, commissioning a set of hand-woven Asian rugs, and installing a man-made lake without planning permission[1]
which they could see from their bedroom window.

In response to a request from

Swami Prabhupada, first visited England in September 1969, he also stayed at Tittenhurst Park at Lennon's invitation.[7] A recording of Prabhupada's philosophical discussion with Lennon, Ono and Harrison, held in the recital hall in the grounds of Tittenhurst Park,[7] was later made available as Lennon '69: Search for Liberation, the first publication in the Vedic Contemporary Library Series.[8] Following this meeting, the recital hall became known as "the Tittenhurst Temple".[9]

The last

grand piano
.

During 1970 and 1971, Lennon and Ono began to visit the United States, first for

Kyoko Chan Cox, in Houston and New York City. Ono had spent her late teens and twenties living in New York (including Scarsdale and Greenwich Village), and preferred there to England. They rented a Bank Street
apartment late in 1970 and, on 31 August 1971, the Lennons moved to New York City permanently. John would never return to England.

Tittenhurst was Grade II listed for its architectural merit in March 1972.[10]

In 2004, Peter Dennison, owner of French furniture firm Moth, offered for sale one of the original lavatory seats from Tittenhurst Park. It was displayed in the window of the Brighton Musical Exchange shop in Trafalgar Street, Brighton. Dennison had bought the seat when his architectural salvage firm was offered furniture by the contractors doing the renovations at Tittenhurst Park. The asking price was £285.[11]

In 2010, the lavatory itself was offered for sale at auction in aid of the Paul McCartney Auditorium at the

Two Virgins, recorded at Kenwood (estimate £2,500) and Julian Lennon's harmonica, given to Mr Hancock by the musician who asked him to take it home as "Julian was driving him mad with it". Lennon told Mr Hancock he would tell Julian it was lost (estimate £750–1,000).[12]

In December 2015, several additional items from Tittenhurst Park were put up for sale as part of the Ringo Starr & Barbara Bach Auction held by Julien's Auctions. These items were originally owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and were included in the sale of Tittenhurst Park to Ringo Starr in 1973. Items included several carved bust statues depicted on the Hey Jude album cover, a wood refectory table and benches, a stone garden bench, several stained glass panels and a mirror panel with floral and foliate silver overlay.[13]

Ascot Sound Studios

Ascot Sound Studios (ASS) was a recording studio built by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1970, on the grounds of Tittenhurst Park.[1]

Lennon built the studio, which featured eight recording tracks on one-inch

mixing console, so that he and Ono could record without the inconvenience of having to book studio time at Abbey Road or another location. Lennon recorded much of his 1971 album Imagine at ASS, with Phil Spector and Ono as his co-producers. George Harrison played on several songs, including "How Do You Sleep?", which criticised his and Lennon's former bandmate Paul McCartney. Ringo Starr visited the studio during the recording of the song and was reportedly upset, saying: "That's enough, John."[14] The album sessions were extensively filmed, and the footage appears in both the Imagine: John Lennon
documentary and a separate documentary about the making of the album.

Recorded at the same time as Imagine was Ono's album Fly (whose title song was the soundtrack to their film of the same name), and these appear to be the last recordings the couple completed at the studio.

Ringo Starr; Startling Studios

Deciding to stay long-term in the United States, Lennon sold Tittenhurst Park to his former bandmate Ringo Starr, who purchased the property on 18 September 1973.[1] Starr renamed the studio "Startling Studios" and made the facility available for use by other recording artists.[15] Portions of T. Rex's film Born to Boogie were shot there, Judas Priest planned to record their British Steel album at Startling Studios, but found the house itself more suitable, and moved recording equipment there. Judas Priest's live album Unleashed in the East was also mixed and completed there. Def Leppard's 1980 debut album On Through the Night was also recorded there.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

In 1988, Starr sold the property for £5 million to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, former President of the United Arab Emirates and former ruler of Abu Dhabi. Zayed also owned Park Gate House in Ham, south west London, and would buy another property in Berkshire, Ascot Place, the year after his purchase of Tittenhurst.[3][16] During Zayed's subsequent renovations of Tittenhurst in 1989 and 1990, master recordings and films from Startling Studios and paintings by Lennon on the walls of the house were destroyed, and a three-metre-high (10 ft) wall was constructed around the perimeter of the property.[17][18]

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan died on 2 November 2004. The property remains in the ownership of the Al Nahyan Family[citation needed].

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-00-719741-5
    .
  2. ^ Berkshire: Sheet 40, Ordnance_Survey,_1876-1886
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-900145-83-4
    .
  4. ^ "Beatle buys a £150,000 mansion". Daily Mirror. 5 May 1969. p. 4.
  5. ^ "Tittenhurst Park sold for £145,000". The Birmingham Post. 16 June 1964. p. 11.
  6. ISBN 978-0-470-12780-3
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8356-0900-5
    .
  8. ISBN 0-252-06566-2
    .
  9. ^ Davis, Alan (2010). Radha Krishna Temple The Radha Krsna Temple (CD liner notes). Apple Records.
  10. ^ Historic England, "Tittenhurst (1109930)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 13 March 2016
  11. ^ "For sale - John Lennon's toilet seat". The Argus. 25 March 2004. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  12. ^ "John Lennon's toilet to be auctioned with Beatles memorabilia". The Daily Telegraph. London. 23 August 2010.
  13. ^ "Property From The Collection of Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach". www.julienslive.com.
  14. ISBN 978-0-9544528-1-0
    .
  15. ^ "Ring O' Records Discography". www.rarebeatles.com.
  16. ^ "Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-NAHYAN". The Times. No. 68224. 4 November 2004. p. 79. Retrieved 14 March 2016 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  17. ISBN 978-1-906032-26-5
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0-7535-4716-8
    .

Further reading

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tittenhurst_Park&oldid=1191034447"