John Lennon: The Kenwood Tapes

Kenwood is a house on the St. George's Hill estate, Weybridge, Surrey, England. Originally called the Brown House, it was designed by architect T.A. Allen, and built in 1913 by local builders Love & Sons. The estate was constructed around the Weybridge Golf Club, which was designed in 1912 by Harry Colt. Kenwood was re-named by manufacturer Ken Wood when he owned the property.

John Lennon, of The Beatles, bought Kenwood for £20,000 on July 15, 1964, on the advice of The Beatles' accountants, Dr. Walter Strach, and James Isherwood. Lennon was resident from the summer of 1964, until the late spring of 1968. Film of the exterior of the house and the gate was included in an ITN programme called Reporting 66, in 1966. Parts of a home movie showing Lennon at Kenwood (1967) were featured in the film Imagine: John Lennon.

Kenwood is close to Sunny Heights, the former home of Ringo Starr, and a short drive from Kinfauns, George Harrison's former home in Esher. In October 2006, Kenwood went back on the market, with an asking price of £5.95 million, and was sold in January 2007 for £5.8 million.

Lennon did much of his songwriting in the attic, where he had several Studer tape recorders. Little was done with them until fellow Beatle Paul McCartney came over and helped re-install them in sequence, so overdubs could be made. Lennon could thus record his own double-tracked song demos. (These demos, and some other, more avant garde sound recordings also made in the attic, have appeared on various bootlegs). The attic also contained a mellotron, an electric organ, a piano, a Vox AC30 and several guitars, all of which were used when songwriting. Lennon also wrote on an upright piano in the sunroom.