Issue 39 Sept 23 - Journal - Page 20
gaining the required planning and listed building
consents. The restoration works were informed by
research and with evidence from documents and the
building’s fabric. An academic symposium also fed into
the process, and as the project progressed much continued to be learnt about the House culminating in the
finished project. Recreating Handel’s kitchen was a key
objective; before it opened there was no publicly accessible Georgian kitchen in London. From inception it was
always recognised that for the kitchen to have convincing
impact, with natural light from the street and shadows
from passersby, reopening the area was paramount.
cooks accommodation, front kitchen and rear
scullery/laundry, and at ground, first and second-floors,
front and rear parlours. Handel was No. 25’s first occupant; he leased the property until his death. In the early
1990s, having purchased a 999-year lease for No. 25, the
Handel House Trust began its journey to recreate
Handel’s home. Restricted by limited funds and the lower
floors then being leased for retail, their early projects had
left the house incomplete. At basement level there was a
rear extension which served as the entrance and accommodated the reception, lift, and stair. Its frontage was lost;
little remained illustrating its previous appearance.
Presented back-to-front, entered from the rear, visitor
orientation and circulation were confused. It was not
experienced as Handel knew it. From a segregated rear
basement reception, visitors ascended two floors to
Handel’s rooms, which they entered via a rear extension,
constructed after Handel’s death, before passing into
Handel’s rooms through a doorway which had never
existed in Handel’s lifetime. Half of Handel’s House was
missing, and the visitor experience was disjointed and
disorientating. Despite, its gutting, alterations, extensions
and additional storeys, the original upper-floor plans and
stairs survived, and Handel House was considered of
exceptional value having been listed as Grade I in 1958.
Bringing Handel’s stair back into use and recreating the
flight to the basement enabled Handel’s House to be
circulated internally as Handel would have used it.
Reopening the area and reinstalling the railings would
recreate a sense of approaching, entering and arriving as
Handel did, and would provide a context that enabled
the Kitchen’s relationship with the street to be understood. With support from various conservation bodies, the
only opposition was from the highways department who
feared that reopening the area and reinstating the railings
would negatively impact pedestrian movement along
Brook Street. Against this resistance (and any objection
from a highways department is a meaningful and powerful
planning obstacle) Westminster City Council approved
the proposal to recreate the area, allowing the heritage
vision to be realised.
With the incumbent retailer’s lease coming to an end the
Handel House Trust seized the opportunity to complete
Handel’s House and with a strong conviction to faithfully
recreate the Brook Street façade and entrance with its
area reinstated to provide context, the team set about
Below, Handels kitchen
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Conservation & Heritage Journal
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