Friar Park

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Building Information
Friar Park
Name	Friar Park
Location	Henley-on-Thames
Country	England
Architect
Style	Gothic revival

Friar Park is the 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion previously owned 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 when nuns belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco order were in residence. The Nuns ran a local Catholic school in Henley, the Sacred Heart School. That's when the first garden gnome statues appeared. George 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 the one at EMI's Abbey Road Studios. Harrison's albums recorded there 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 powerful 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 security features such as razor-wire fences and video cameras were installed. Despite these measures, an intruder broke into the residence on December 30, 1999, attacking Harrison and his wife in their bedroom in the early morning hours, leaving Harrison hospitalized with stab wounds to the chest.^[1]

Harrison's widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, continued to live in the mansion for months after Harrison's death from cancer in November 2001. The rumours about the sale of this property are unfounded.