Friar Park

Friar Park is the 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion built by the eccentric Sir Frank Crisp near Henley-on-Thames and purchased by the Beatle George Harrison as his new home on January 14, 1970, as he departed his former home Kinfauns, in Esher.

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It has extensive gardens and water features, and one main theme to the decor: Mockeries of organised religion. Among the statuary is a monk holding a skillet, with a plaque reading "Two Holy Friars". (Ironically, Friar Park's owner between Crisp and Harrison was the Roman Catholic Church; nuns were in residence when he first visited.) Garden gnome statues also appear; Harrison was photographed amongst these for the cover of All Things Must Pass, and again with his father Harry a few years later, with the photo appearing in his album Thirty Three & 1/3.

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A 16-track tape-based recording studio was installed in a guest suite, which at one stage was superior to EMI's Abbey Road Studios. (Harrison's albums usually mention "F.P.S.H.O.T.", or Friar Park Studio.) Besides records by Harrison or artists he produced, the studio was also used by Shakespear's Sister to record their 1992 album Hormonally Yours.

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Harrison immortalised the building in his song "Crackerbox Palace" (his nickname for the mansion, after Lord Buckley's home in California). A further song, "The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)", was also inspired by the mansion's history. Harrison loved tending to the gardens personally, and among the groundskeepers were his older brothers Peter and Harry.

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The mansion was largely open to the public, until the murder of John Lennon in December 1980; shortly afterward, the gates were locked, and a sign was posted with no-entry messages in six languages, with accompanying national flags. (Included was an American flag, next to the words "GET YOUR ASS OUT'A HERE.")

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Harrison's widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, continued to live in the mansion for months after George's death, but sold it in 2002.

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Victorian: Victorian may mean:...

Neo-Gothic: REDIRECT Gothic Revival architecture...

Mansion: A mansion is a large and stately dwelling house. The word itself derives (through Old French) from the Latin word mansus the past participle of manere "to dwell". The English word "manse" originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no long...

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