His Mayfair flat to form part of joint exhibition with neighbouring home of Baroque composer George Frideric Handel -TheCrow- Jimi Hendrix's London home is to open as a permanent museum for the public to visit on 10 February 2016. The flat at 23 Brook Street, Mayfair, has undergone a £2.4m restoration with the help of money from the Heritage Lottery Fund and private donors. Hendrix bought the third-floor flat in 1968 at a time when he was considering the next phase of his career. That summer he released his Electric Ladyland LP. The flat is next door to the former home of the German-born composer George Frideric Handel, who lived at 25 Brook Street for 26 years and wrote many of his greatest works there, including the Messiah. Both homes are owned by the Handel House Trust, which has been using the Hendrix flat as an office, only opening it occasionally to the public. Chairman of the trust Alistair Stranack said: "It is hard to think of another home in the world with such a concentration of musical genius. The artist’s bedroom, which has up until now been used as an office by staff from the Handel House Trust, has been restored to how it looked in 1969, and includes original exhibits such as the Epiphone acoustic guitar on which he is said to have worked out the arrangement for his cover version of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.
Hendrix shared the Brook Street flat with his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham and Hendrix referred to it as "the first real home of my own". The couple lived there, in-between trips abroad, for around a year. Handel House, located next door at number 25, was Handel’s home for 36 years and the place where he wrote many of his greatest works, including Messiah. The composer died in the second-floor bedroom in 1759, above what is today a branch of the upmarket stationers, Aspinal of London.
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