£1m donation preserves Handel and Hendrix home

A GIFT of £1million from a harpsichord tuner will allow George Frideric Handel’s London townhouse to be made into a “major British attraction”, with money left over to renovate Jimi Hendrix’s old flat.

The 18th-century composer of Messiah lived for 36 years in the four-storey house at 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, where, 200 years after his death, guitar legend Hendrix found lodgings in a converted upstairs flat in 1968.

A small museum was founded there but the attraction’s double musical significance remained little-known.

However, Mark Ransom, a harpsichord expert who tuned and cared for antique instruments at the house, left a surprise £1million bequest to help expand the site after he died in 2019, aged 85. His bequest left the Handel and Hendrix museum enough to reach the £3million target it needed to complete its Hallelujah Project to expand.

Claire Davies, its deputy director and curator, said: “Mark combined extraordinary knowledge and technical ability with warmth and generosity towards those who shared his passion for the harpsichord.”

The house will now be refurbish to make it look as it did in Handel’s time, with new displays and plans for classical concerts and other events, with food prepared in what used to be the composer’s private kitchens.

The flat and the rest of the site will be sound-proofed as part of the plans to make it a music venue. The house is due to reopen in 2023.