Friar Park
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Friar Park is the 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion built by the eccentric Sir Frank Crisp near Henley-on-Thames and bought by the musician George Harrison as his new home on January 14, 1970, as he left his former home Kinfauns, in Esher.
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.
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, Henley-on-Thames.) Besides records by Harrison or artists he produced, the studio was also used by Shakespear's Sister to record their 1992 album Hormonally Yours.
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.
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.")
Harrison's widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, continued to live in the mansion for months after George's death. The rumours about the sale of this property are unfounded.
Position: Grid reference
External links
Hilariously, the map refers not to Henley-on-Thames at all, but to the Friar Park council estate in Wednesbury, in the industrial Black Country of England and alongside the busy M6 motorway near its junction with the M5!
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