Calderstones Park, Liverpool
John Lennon chose to live at Tittenhurst Park, Ascot, Berkshire between 1969 and 1971. It reminded him of Calderstones Park, Liverpool (above) John Lennon bought Tittenhurst Park from Westward TV chief, Peter Cadbury. who used to open the grounds to the public at certain times of the year. When John Lennon bought it, he was asked if he would allow the public in. He said, "Will I open the grounds? Will I hell!"
Tittenhurst Park, Berkshire
Tittenhurst Park was built in 1737 about 20 miles south-west of London. It has 18 rooms including an art gallery, four bath rooms and two flats for staff. Dotted around the grounds are a swimming pool, statue to Diana, cricket pitch and four cottages. These were used as guests accomodation during Lennon's occupation. John Lennon also has a Lake installed and a new recording studio called Ascot Studios. It was here that he recorded 'Imagine'. The front entrance had a sign above the door saying 'This Is Not Here', whilst the gallery, summer house and lobby held Yoko Ono's art work - including the stepladder with a spy glass suspended beneath a white canvas with the word YES; it was this piece of art that John Lennon experienced at Indica Art Gallery made him "feel positive" and his relationship with Yoko Ono developed. John Lennon brought some items with him when he and Yoko Ono moved into Tittenhurst Park, including books; posters (Being For The Benfit of Mr.Kite); busts and statues - placed outside an Assembly Hall entrance at Tittenhurst Park (in particular a head used on the front cover of the Sgt Pepper's album by Peter Blake); pianos; guitars and a large wooden dining table from his former home in Surrey. John Lennon adored Tittenhurst Park more than any of his homes, it is here that his music, art and politics went into creative orbit and the rest is history; the three key events of this period are:
1969 - John marries Yoko Ono
1970 - The Beatles stop recording
1971 - John Lennon releases the album Imagine
'This Is Not Here' - John Lennon & Yoko Ono's slogan etched into a glass panel above the front door entrance of the main house at the Tittenhurst Park Estate, Ascot.
Throughout 1970 an eight track recording studio was gradually installed at Tittenhurst, as well as film editing equipment. But the studio, named Ascot Sound, wouldn't be ready until the following year. During the building of the studio, in March 1970, the Lennon's invited Arthur Janov - the author of the 1969 publication “The Primal scream - Primal Therapy: The cure of neurosis” - to their home for a trial run of primal therapy sessions. John & Yoko's relationship had entered a very difficult phase during February, possibly brought on by the problems in gaining access to their children - Julian had only enjoyed sporadic contact with John since the divorce of his parents as communication between John and Cynthia had become increasingly strained. Yoko then thought it would be better if Cynthia could speak to her and not to John when discussing Julian's visits because John would now talk to Tony when discussing Kyoko, but Cynthia was not at all happy with this arrangement. John decided to visit Julian alone, but the visit was cut short when Yoko made a frantic call for him to return. This stressful period was enough to warrant Yoko being admitted to a London clinic at 20 Devonshire Place between the 5th & 9th March 1970 before Janov's arrival refocused them onto something more positive. On 29th March John revealed that Yoko was pregnant during a telephone message of support to a CND gathering. On April fools day, a hoax John & Yoko press release stated that they had entered a London Clinic for a dual sex-change operation, but in truth they were now deeply involved with the primal therapy sessions.
ReplyDeleteDue to the work on the Tittenhurst studio disturbing them they then moved (at Janov's suggestion) into separate hotels, John moved into The inn on the Park, Yoko the Londonderry but this was still not ideal and Janov then recommended they fly out to Los Angeles to resume their treatment at his Primal institute at 900 Sunset Drive, this they did on 23rd April, flying to the USA to continue their therapy renting accommodation at 841 Nimes Road, Bel Air.
ReplyDeleteEthan Russell took the last photographs of the Beatles together, the various pictures can be see on Last Beatles Photo Session.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Ethan's website at:
http://www.ethanrussell.com/
Lennon purchased this Georgian manor house and land from the Blindell family after the sale of Kenwood in Surrey, his earlier home with first wife Cynthia Lennon, because of its resemblance to Calderstones Park in Liverpool, where he had spent time as a child. He and Ono spent twice the £145,000 purchase price on renovations, transforming the interior of the house to their liking, commissioning a set of hand-woven Oriental rugs, and installing a man-made lake which they could see from their bedroom window.
ReplyDeleteThe last Beatles photo session took place at Tittenhurst Park on August 22, 1969, and the photos were used for the front and back covers of their Hey Jude album (a collection of single sides) early in 1970. Also during that year, and in the wake of the Beatles' breakup, Lennon built his own recording studio, dubbed Ascot Sound Studios, in the estate grounds, where he and Ono recorded their next several albums. The matching cover photos of their twin Plastic Ono Band albums were taken at Tittenhurst by the pair, using an Instamatic camera, and portions of the Imagine movie-length video – which included selections from the Fly album – were also filmed in the grounds.
During 1970 and 1971, Lennon and Ono began to visit the United States, first for Primal Therapy at Dr. Arthur Janov's Primal Institute in California, then for child custody hearings over Ono's daughter Kyoko Chan Cox, in Houston and New York City. Ono spent her late teens and twenties living in New York (including Scarsdale and Greenwich Village), and felt more at home there than in England – and so did Lennon, once he'd had a taste of Village life, as they rented a Bank Street apartment late that year. On August 31, 1971 the Lennons moved to New York permanently