34 MONTAGU SQUARE TIMELINE
After the Abbey Road studios and the Apple headquarters in Savile Row no other building holds as much importance to The Beatles’ story as does 34 Montagu Square...
1810 Montagu Square was built between 1810 and 1815 and named after Elizabeth Montagu, a 17th century social reformer and patron of the arts.
1965 Ringo Starr takes out a lease on the flat early shortly before his Feb 11th marriage to Maureen Cox.
July Ringo Starr moves to Sunny Heights in Weybridge but retains the lease on the property and future residents include the Dutch design collective The Fool and Beatles’ associates Alastair Taylor, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans.
October 26 Paul and Ringo are pictured outside the flat waiting for their transport (John Lennon’s Rolls Royce) to pick up their MBEs from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
1966 March Paul McCartney moves into the flat and sets up a small demo studio in the basement assisted by the boyfriend of William Burroughs, Ian Somerville an electronics technician and computer programmer. Paul began work on Eleanor Rigby at the flat during this time and also experimented with tape loops to create new avant-garde sounds. Spoken word recordings of poets were also made there including William Burroughs.
December Jimi Hendrix, Kathy Etchingham (his girlfriend), Chas Chandler (his manager) and Lottie Lexon (Chas’s girlfriend) move into the flat. Jimi and Kathy take up residence downstairs with Chas and Lottie on the ground floor. During this time Jimi writes The Wind Cries Mary after an argument about his cooking skills with Kathy. The four move out of the flat a few months later after complaints about the noise.
1968 After the breakdown of their marriage, Cynthia Lennon, her son Julian and mother Lillian Powell leave the family home, Kenwood to John and Yoko and move into the flat. In the summer they switch and John and Yoko take up residence at the height of the recordings for The White Album.
August The famous ‘Two Virgins’ self-portrait is shot in the ground floor bedroom. After Ringo decides to quit the Beatles he visits John at the flat to give him the news.
October 13 At 11:30AM the flat is raided by Scotland Yard’s drug squad and John and Yoko are both arrested for possession of hashish.
October 19 They are both charged in court with possession and bailed.
November 28 John takes sole responsibility at the court hearing and is fined £150 plus 20 guineas costs. The couple leave the flat and return to Kenwood.
