Tag Archives: Friar Park

George Harrison: A Gardener’s Life

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Well, here’s something a bit different.

We know that George Harrison was a very keen gardener. There was a beautiful article at the end of 2023 in Country Life magazine on some of the work he did to bring the gardens of his country estate, Friar Park, back to life and the fantastic legacy he left there as those gardens continue to thrive today. With the help of his wife Olivia Harrison, George revitalized the neglected property, which consisted of the mansion, lodges, and 32 acres of grounds.

Now comes a stunning tribute to George the gardener in the form of a major exhibition – and it is in Florida of all places.

The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida have on display now a unique and impressive exhibition exploring the connection between George Harrison and his much-loved hobby.

George Harrison: A Gardener’s Life is on view through to June 29, 2025, and it’s already broken all attendance records for any previous special exhibition at the Gardens.

Selby Gardens has re-imagined some of the Friar Park gardens through horticultural vignettes across its 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus, including original garden designs by the man who originally built Friar Park, SIr Frank Crisp, and more recent gardens planted by George and Olivia. Highlights include a topiary and sundial garden; an alpine rock garden complete with a scale model of the Matterhorn; a knot garden in the shape of a kolam (a geometrical Indian line drawing); a knot garden design that plays on the treble clef; and a hedge maze.

The Tropical Conservatory features stunning displays of plants. One incorporates Barry Feinstein’s iconic photo of Harrison from the album cover for All Things Must Pass; a sculptural garden combines water, weeping plants, and electric guitars – a nod to his Beatle hit While My Guitar Gently Weeps; and a palm garden references the cover design of his solo album Living in the Material World. A selection of George’s music plays throughout the Conservatory.

The Museum of Botany and the Arts at the Gardens features a dynamic collection of photographs and videos of George and his crews working on the estate grounds, plus maps and photographic references to Crisp’s original designs, and personal memorabilia.

The exhibition has also attracted the attention and support of The Beatles official Facebook page, and the George Harrison website.

To see a spectacular short “walk through” video of the exhibition, just click on the image below:

For The Love of George – Instrumental Tribute Album Hits All The Right Notes

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Dark Horse Records celebrated George Harrison’s birth date this week with the release of a new tribute album by gypsy jazz guitarist Robin Nolan. 

For The Love Of George can be streamed on all good streaming services and features some amazing gypsy jazz versions of classic George songs. Also included is a brand new composition crafted by Nolan from chords jotted down by George on an envelope and only discovered after his passing. Cementing to strong connections here, Nolan played three of George’s own guitars, and the recording was made in the studio George created at his home in Friar Park.

The album features ten Gypsy Jazz interpretations of Harrison songs from across his Beatle and solo career, as well as the brand-new composition. Surprisingly they really lend themselves to the Django Reinhardt-style.

Nolan’s relationship with Harrison dates back to the 1990s, when George personally recognized and encouraged his playing. Since then, Nolan has remained a valued presence within the Harrison musical circle, making this tribute especially meaningful. And it’s not the first album Nolan has recorded at Friar Park. He released Gypsy Blue in 2013 on Dhani Harrison’s H.O.T. Records – and like this this one it was only available digitally but also a very limited CD. (H.O.T. of course stands for Henley-On-Thames, the town where Friar Park is located).

Talking about how the new album came about, Robin Nolan explains, “I was at Friar Park playing for Olivia’s birthday. We were all talking and then George’s Ramirez acoustic guitar appeared and I played ‘And I Love Her’ on it. It was a massive thrill to play the song on the same guitar he’d originally recorded it on with Olivia and everyone watching.”

“I had already been thinking about how cool it would be to do an album of George’s songs, but then to actually be playing one of his songs on that guitar. ‘That’s another level, you know, that’s another layer of awesomeness.’ So that was where the inspiration for the album was born.

“A few days later, I was working on the arrangements of how these songs could sound in the Gypsy Jazz style and Olivia texted me this picture of an envelope with some chords that George had written on it and said, ‘Check it out. I wonder if George ever did anything with that? Maybe you can look at the chords and tell?'”

“I stared at the envelope and studied the chords intently that George had written all those years ago and started to feel the magic. It was like unraveling a mystery, trying to imagine what George might have meant.

“At a certain moment I felt that the chords started to make sense and came alive as I strummed them on my guitar, ‘Ahh maybe that’s what he meant’, I remember thinking to myself.”

“After I’d figured out the chords a melody came to me. In my mind I could hear George humming a tune that sounded really beautiful. That’s when it all came together. The title track of this album For The Love Of George.

“I was really excited so I recorded a simple version on my phone and sent it to Olivia wondering what she might think. She responded, ‘Wow it sounds so much like George!’

“And, of course, it does sound like George, because there’s a few chord changes in there which are really unique to him, and then the melody I wrote is so inspired by him.”

“For this new track I used all three of George’s guitars that feature on the album. The intro is the 12-string Rickenbacker used on the bulk of the Hard Day’s Night album, and it’s just got that sound, you know? So I made the intro with that guitar, and some fills. The main melody is played on the Gibson J160, which is the guitar with a lot of history. It’s the only guitar that was used on every Beatles album. It’s tough to play, but it has so much character. I did the melodies on that one, and then there’s some backing lines on the Ramirez.”

For The Love Of George tracklisting:

  1. For The Love Of George
  2. Wah-Wah 3. Marwa Blues
  3. I Want To Tell You
  4. And I Love Her
  5. My Sweet Lord
  6. All Things Must Pass
  7. Dark Sweet Lady
  8. The Inner Light
  9. Something
  10. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Read more about Robin Nolan on his website, and keep an eye open for his forthcoming tour in support of the album.

And fingers crossed that Dark Horse eventually releases For The Love Of George on CD and vinyl!

Country Life Magazine – George Harrison’s Garden

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UK magazine Country Life has this month published a very interesting story about the topiary gardens of George and Olivia Harrison’s famous Henley-on-Thames estate, Friar Park.

We’re all used to seeing the occasional photograph showing glimpses of Friar Park – the mansion, extensive grounds and amazing gardens that George purchased in 1970. The most famous would have to be this album cover:

So it is interesting to read a contemporary article about how the gardens, in particular the topiary section, are doing now. When Harrison first moved in they were in a very poor state, having been let go by the previous occupants for more than 30 years:

George became a very keen gardener and determined to put not only the house (which had also fallen into disrepair) but all the gardens back to rights. He was so hands-on that his son Dhani once said: ‘My earliest memory of my dad is probably of him somewhere in a garden covered in dirt… just continuously planting trees. I think that’s what I thought he did for the first seven years of my life. I was completely unaware that he had anything to do with music.’

His widow Olivia has maintained that dream and, to be honest, from the images in this article the topiary section today is looking magical.

The article ends:

In short, the impeccably maintained topiary garden at Friar Park today is a masterpiece—one of the most important in all Europe.

(Click on images to see a larger version)

George Harrison’s Historic House “Friar Park” – New Book

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had an interest in the homes of the Beatles. Not a snooping, voyeuristic interest – but more of an architectural one because they (especially John and George) have lived in some very interesting buildings over the years.

That’s why our interest was sparked when we got a press release this week from a company called The Campfire Network advertising a new book. In coordination with “Ye Friends of Friar Park,” Campfire has just announced the publication of the second book in a series which celebrates the history and architecture of residences which at some point were homes of one or more of the Beatles. (Their first book in the series was The Dakota Scrapbook, published last year).

Now comes Friar Park: A Pictorial History, a collection of vintage, rare, and original photographs and illustrations telling the story of George Harrison’s spectacular and unusual home – Friar Park – from the time Sir Frank Crisp began purchasing land in the medieval town of Henley-on-Thames in the late 1800s, all the way to the time it was purchased by Harrison.Friar_Park

Carefully selected images offer a rare and unique glimpse of the property’s extraordinary gardens, mansion home, lodges, and assorted structures, lakes, and secret underground caves, as well as other architectural and horticultural treasures and wonders on the grounds of Friar Park. Here are some of the pages and images from the book:Friar Park. A Pictorial History Pages_3Friar Park. A Pictorial History Pages_4Friar Park. A Pictorial History Pages_6Friar Park. A Pictorial History Pages_7

Campfire’s Marketing Director Kelly Cardinal says: “Beatles fans, architects, historians, and anyone interested in grand homes and beautiful gardens have long-admired Friar Park from afar, with little more than the occasional description or photos that have appeared here and there. Now, for the first time, is a publication that includes the largest collection of photos and information about Friar Park that has ever been gathered together in one place before. It has generated quite a bit of excitement.”

The pictures and information in the book were found during the development of a forthcoming film documentary about the home.

Friar Park: A Pictorial History is now available from Amazon, as is a companion volume called Friar Park: 1919 Estate Auction Catalogue, a recreation of the official auction catalogue for the house when it was sold following the passing of original owner Sir Frank Crisp. Upon his death his family instructed auctioneers to sell the entire estate, including all the grounds, the boathouse on Henley-on-Thames, and three grand residential sites. The sale took place on Saturday, August 9th, 1919 and this book is a scholastic and educational study of an architecturally and historically significant English country house.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, “The Story of Tittenhurst Park” – the English stately home owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, will be released in 2015.

And the same company has also published The Dakota Apartments: Vintage Articles.

(Each of the links above are to Amazon pages with a “Look Inside” function so that you can have a bit more of a sticky beak at these very interesting books).

There are also two YouTube clips promoting Friar Park: A Pictorial History. This one is interesting – lots of photos and page shots from the book. Then there’s this one – much more dramatic!: