Press release

His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh celebrated rock history with a visit to the Mayfair home of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix at Handel Hendrix House museum on Brook Street, Mayfair on Monday, April 13, 2026

Link to images: https://www.christopherison.com/gallery/Duke-of-Edinburgh-visits-Handel-Hendrix-House-museum/G0000NiE_ZBPe29I/C0000VPBMQ5zZIhE

The visit coincided with the museum’s preparations for a new display about Jimi Hendrix, featuring previously unseen archive material about Hendrix’s life and music, which will open on Friday, June 19, 2026. The documents are from the corporate records of Anim Records, the company that managed The Jimi Hendrix Experience and other acts, including The Animals. Whilst Anim Records founder Mike Jeffrey was officially Hendrix’s manager, the day-to-day affairs of Hendrix and the bands was looked after by Patricia ‘Trixie’ Sullivan. Then a single mother in her twenties, Trixie forged an incredible career in music, entertainment and fashion throughout the swinging sixties and beyond, blazing a trail for other women to follow.
His Royal Highness was shown records that will help visitors to the museum picture the everyday life of the rock star – from dry cleaning tickets for his incredible clothes to unpaid phone bills and entries on Trixie’s calendar which mention the memorable performances on the Lulu show and at the Royal Albert Hall. The Duke also saw Trixie’s 60s diaries, in which stories of gigs, late nights and parties dance off the page. These items were recently acquired by Handel Hendrix House with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The archive will go on display in an exhibition at Handel Hendrix House that sets Jimi’s life in London in context, after which museum visitors explore the bedroom of the flat, he shared with Kathy Etchingham which has been meticulously recreated. Guitarist Nigel Jones, a regular performer and teacher at Handel Hendrix House, brought the flat to life with a burst of Hendrix-inspired music improvised for His Royal Highness.

The Duke also explored the home of the great baroque composer G.F. Handel, who lived in the house next door to Hendrix, which completes the Handel Hendrix House museum. Here, His Royal Highness enjoyed a performance by Nathaniel Mander on a 1750s harpsichord in Handel’s own music room, and saw the exhibition Handel Through Mozart’s Eyes, which includes a score in Mozart’s hand of a string quartet based on Handel’s music.

Handel was employed as a composer and teacher for the Hanoverian monarchs, and his music manuscripts were acquired by King George III. It was most likely King George III who acquired a portrait of Handel by Thomas Hudson in an elaborate, oval frame decorated with bullrushes alluding to Handel’s support for the Foundling Hospital. This portrait, part of The Royal Collection, was originally hung at Windsor Castle but is now on display at Handel Hendrix House.

The Duke also heard about the museum’s plans this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the museum which first opened in November 2001, which will include an exhibition about Handel opening in September and a special musical celebration in November. After meeting some of the museum’s band of volunteers, whose passion and dedication are essential for the museum to open to the public, His Royal Highness learned about Handel Hendrix House’s education programme and its creative work in partnership with refugee charities.

The Duke is passionate about the arts and gives much of his time to organisations that enable young people to develop their skills through theatre and music.

Penelope, Viscountess Cobham, Chairman of the charity that runs Handel Hendrix House said: “It was a great honour to welcome His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh to Handel Hendrix House today. His Royal Highness is an ambassador for creativity, the arts and heritage in this country and we were delighted to be able to share our 25-year story and future plans with him, and to show him some fascinating new items we are about to display. Our volunteers in particular were thrilled to meet His Royal Highness and appreciated his recognition of their dedication and service.”

Simon Daniels, Director of Handel Hendrix House said: “We are hugely grateful to His Royal Highness for visiting the museum today and for his encouragement for all that we do to look after the incredible musical heritage at Brook Street, and to inspire everyone with the stories and music of Handel and Hendrix. As we enter our 25th year as a museum, it was a privilege to share the work we do with The Duke, and we hope more people will want to experience the museum – the home of ‘Baroque ‘n’ Roll’.”

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Hendrix In London is made possible with The National

Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, Handel Hendrix House has been able to acquire as yet unresearched material related to Jimi Hendrix, and we will soon be putting them on display at Handel Hendrix House and making a digital catalogue of the collection accessible online.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The house is open Wednesday – Sunday 10.00 – 17.00 (last entry at 16:00). Tickets are £14.50 for adults, £10.50 for students and free for the under 12s. Tickets can be purchased in advance on the website www.handelhendrix.org but it is possible to buy

a ticket on the day at the museum. Nearest Tube: Bond Street

PRESS INFORMATION

Please contact Rachel Aked

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 07790 732448

The live music at Handel Hendrix House is generously supported by The Thistle Trust, The Garrick Charitable Trust, and Chapman Charitable Trust.

Handel Hendrix House cares for and presents to the public the homes of two of the greatest musicians ever to have lived in London. George Frideric Handel lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759. It was here that Handel wrote and rehearsed his greatest works, including Messiah and its ever popular ‘Hallelujah chorus’ – perhaps the most famous piece of classical music ever written. His stirring anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’, was also written in Brook Street and has accompanied the coronation of every British monarch since George II (for whom it was written in 1727), including HM King Charles III.

In 1968, Jimi Hendrix moved into an adjoining flat at number 23. Here, in the only place he said he felt truly at home, Hendrix entertained, inspired, and collaborated with other icons of British 60s rock music.

Handel Hendrix House has completed a £3million project to open all of Handel’s house to the public for the first time by restoring the basement and ground floor by faithfully recreated Handel’s basement kitchen with all its fixtures and fittings, carefully detailed on research and an inventory made shortly after the composer’s death.

Also

· Restored the ground floor parlours in which Handel would receive his guests and aristocratic patrons and in which his assistant, J.C. Smith, would sell tickets and subscriptions to new works.

· Restored the front façade of 25 Brook Street so that visitors can finally enter Handel’s home through his front door.

New things to see in Handel’s house include:

• Historic rooms presented as they might have been in the 1740s, when the composer was in a new burst of creative energy and commercial success writing dramatic oratorios.

• Recently acquired works of art, creating a collection representative of the more than 100 works of art Handel owned in Brook Street.

• New exhibitions about Handel’s music and the musicians he worked with and a mixed reality audio-visual display about the writing of Messiah in the very room in which it was composed.

In 2016, Jimi Hendrix’s flat in 23 Brook Street was brilliantly restored and opened to the public. To be enjoyed as a contrasting and complementary part to a visit to Handel’s home,

the Hendrix experience at Handel Hendrix House has been expanded as part of the Hallelujah Project:

• For the first time, visitors can walk up and down the stairs to his flat, where George Harrison famously had to step over one of Jimi’s other visitors who had passed out en route to the exit.

• A new exhibition features a film showing visitors exploring Hendrix’s legendary guitar technique and his influence on musicians and creatives, with high quality sound supported by Bang & Olufsen

• The film includes material uncovered by Handel Hendrix House through their national ‘Your Experience’ appeal for memories, images and stories of people’s encounters with Jimi Hendrix across the country.

A guide to Handel Hendrix House is now available on Bloomberg Connects, which can be translated into 12 different languages including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Russian, Korean, Hindi, Japanese and Chinese. Details of the house can be found https://guides.bloombergconnects.org/en-US/guide/handelHendrixHouse