Handel’s London home to get £3 million restoration

Handel & Hendrix in London, the charity which maintains the adjoining buildings in which composer George Frideric Handel and guitarist Jimi Hendrix have lived has embarked on a £3 million restoration initiative. The Hallelujah project will allow the whole of Handel’s house to be open to the public for the first time from 18 May 2023.

Handel lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759, during which time he wrote works including Messiah and ‘Zadok the Priest’.  Handel’s home has been acknowledged as a place of historical importance, but the building has been the victim of ‘unsympathetic development’.

As Simon Daniels, director of Handel & Hendrix in London commented: ‘Restoring Handel’s house to its original appearance was an idea revived by musicologist Stanley Sadie in 1959. After 63 years, the Hallelujah Project will finally realise this noble ambition and ensure 25 Brook Street is an engaging, accessible and permanent testament to the fact that London was home to one of the world’s greatest ever composers.’

The Hallelujah project will include the restoration of the building’s front façade, with a new front door entrance for visitors as well as the recreation of Handel’s basement kitchen and ground floor parlours. All historic rooms will be furnished as they would have been in the 1740s, with art from the collection of works Handel owned at the time.

Handel & Hendrix in London will also host new exhibitions, concerts, masterclasses and private events with income to be reinvested in the museum’s education programme. The Hendrix experience at 23 Brook Street will also be expanded.

23 and 25 Brook Street have been closed since September 2021 for the restoration to take place and will re-open on 18 May 2023, with tickets going on sale in March 2023.