| Friar Park | |
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Gatehouse of Friar Park |
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Gothic revival |
| Town or city | Henley-on-Thames |
| Country | England |
Friar Park is the 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion previously owned by the eccentric Sir Frank Crisp in Henley-on-Thames and bought by the musician George Harrison in 1970, as he left his former home Kinfauns, in Esher.
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Owned by Sir Frank Crisp from 1875 to 1919. Owned by Roman Catholic Church nuns belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco order. The Nuns ran a local Catholic school in Henley, the Sacred Heart School. Purchased by George Harrison in 1970.
Harrison installed a 16-track tape-based recording studio 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 song, 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 in the early morning hours of 30 December 1999, attacking Harrison and his wife, leaving Harrison suffering a punctured lung, seven stab wounds, and head injuries.[1] In 2009, Olivia Harrison won the right to put in a permanent fence for her protection, some of the neighbours objected to the fence for concern to their cats being injured by the sharp edges of the razor-wire fencing.[2][3][4][5][6]
Harrison's widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, continued to live in the mansion after Harrison's death from cancer in November 2001.
Friar Park has extensive gardens and water features designed by Crisp, including a grotto, and stones just underneath the surface of the pond (providing a walking-on-water illusion). The park also includes a sandstone replica of the Matterhorn.[7] Reflecting Crisp's sense of humour, among the statuary is a monk holding a frying pan with holes in it, and a plaque reading "Two Holy Friars". Harrison was photographed amongst garden gnomes located in the garden 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. Harrison and his wife Olivia restored the gardens.[8]
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