Comments on: Where Hendrix & Handel Were Neighbours

By: Jill Wilson

Jill Wilson — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 09:19:03 +0000

My mother and I always go to the Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall every Good Friday and so are massive fans of Handel and have visited his house in Brook Street to pay our respects.
The Foundling Hospital is another place worth a visit to see how the generosity of people like Handel and William Hogarth helped so many destitute and abandoned children.

By: Debra Matheney

Debra Matheney — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 17:34:18 +0000

When I visited the Handel Museum, I was touched by a letter written by one of his friends who was at Handel’s death bed to another friend. I have searched and searched for the letter as it was so beautifully written, but cannot find it. If any reader know it, please email it to me. Handel had a rich network of friends as documented in a lovely book by Helen Harris titled George Frederic Handel: A Life with Friends.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 11:48:44 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, thanks for this piece about the Handel and Hendrix abodes on Brook Street, another “small museum” that I have missed in London. Great pics too.

I recall a reference in Sherlock Holmes to Brook Street as being a very posh address. Glad that the legacies of these two great musicians are being preserved…

By: Laura Williamson

Laura Williamson — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 11:04:29 +0000

I love your pen picture of the two musical giants jam session!

There is an interesting account by Mary Delany, Handel’s neighbour in Brook Street, of a party she gave (she’s a very interesting and talented woman in her own right)

“…Lord Shaftesbury begged of Mr. Percival to bring him, and being a profess’d friend of Mr. Handel (who was here also) was admitted; I never was so well entertained at an opera! Mr. Handel was in the best humour in the world, and played lessons and accompanied Strada and all the ladies that sang from seven o’clock till eleven. I gave them tea and coffee, and about half an hour after nine had a salver brought in of chocolate, mulled white wine and biscuits. Everybody was easy and seemed pleased”

I believe that Handel and Hendrix would be happy that their homes are now regularly again used as places for making music.

By: Mathilde Grange

Mathilde Grange — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 09:42:25 +0000

How wondergful to learn that two great musicians lived in the same building, albeit two hundred years apart. And I totally agree with Charlie’s comment. Utmost snobishness. Thank you, G.A.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 08:52:53 +0000

When I was first a tour guide in 1997, I was told the Handel Society had objected to a blue plaque for Jimi Hendrix being placed on the building. If this is true (and the source was a knowledgeable and respected person), that is a combination of the utmost snobbishness and churlishness on their part……glad to say sense prevailed.

By: Jo Mazelis

Jo Mazelis — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 08:08:34 +0000

Their other neighbour was the ill fated young poet Thomas Chatterton, who lived and died at number 39.