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The Montagu Square home where John Lennon, and Yoko Ono shot their Two Virgins artwork |
Get plaque to where you once belonged
REVEALED: John Lennon beats Hendrix and fellow Beatles to English Heritage honour
JOHN Lennon is set to be honoured with a blue plaque outside the Marylebone house that was the setting of his infamous nude photoshoot with Yoko Ono for the cover of their Two Virgins album.
When the plaque is erected outside the flat at 34 Montagu Square, where he lived with Ono for just three months, the late Beatle will become one of a handful of people, joining Gandhi and Lord Palmerston, to be commemorated with more than one plaque.
English Heritage only grant a second plaque in “exceptional” cases.
The identity of the plaque, for which the planning application was lodged with Westminster City Council this week, had been kept a secret by the body. With former residents including Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix, there were a lot of people in the running for a spot on the outside of the Marylebone property dubbed “the ultimate rock ’n’ roll pad”.
But the owner of the property, record label boss Reynold D’Silva, confirmed that it was Lennon’s name that would take pride of place.
Ono was pregnant during their tumultuous stay at the basement flat in Montagu Square – now one of the most sought-after addresses in London and home to millionaire businesswoman Martha Lane Fox.
Mr D’Silva, a huge Beatles fan, bought the ground-floor flat in the property in 1999 for £550,000.
He said: “It’s John Lennon. There were a few to pick from but he is the right man. He wasn’t there for very long but it was a very significant time in his career. Those pictures and the album cover caused a huge stir. I actually mentioned trying to get the plaque up back in 1999 when I bought the property and nothing happened. I had more or less forgotten about it and then out of the blue I had a call saying it was going ahead.”
Two Virgins was released in 1968 but it was the graphic nature of the album cover rather than its content for which it is best known. Some distributors sold copies in brown wrapping paper, while in America some states refused to sell it at all. The musician, who used a time-delay camera to take the picture, later described the image as “two slightly overweight ex-junkies”.
Lennon, who was shot dead in New York City in 1980, aged just 40, already has a music heritage plaque in nearby Baker Street, and was one of the first figures to be bestowed with an English Heritage plaque outside the capital, when in 1999 one was unveiled on his childhood home in Liverpool.
A spokeswoman for English Heritage said they did not “advertise plaque installation” until immediately before the unveiling.
Clementine Langford, from the London Beatles Store in Baker Street, said: “I think it’s a great idea. People always come in asking for 94 Baker Street (the site of the music heritage plaque) or Abbey Road. Now they will want to see the plaque in Montagu Square.” |
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