HANDEL HOUSE

CLIENT : HANDEL & HENDRIX

Having completed the Hendrix flat several years ago, and in response to visitor feedback finding Handel’s rooms less richly engaging, Handel & Hendrix came back to us to reimagine Handel’s house. Working with a complex visitor circulation and a demanding range of uses for key rooms, we came up with some innovative solutions.

The reception room needed to work as both a clear, busy visitor welcome and ticketing area and as an authentic setting for an eighteenth century banqueting experience. We sourced an antique bureau which opened up into a reception desk but could be fully stowed in minutes, and designed an 18th century style table for Handel’s front room which when fully extended could accommodate 22 for a dining event.

To keep the rooms light on text interpretation we worked with Orpheo on a digital guide, and delivered a concept with multiple story points in each roomset, with sourced and created props enhanced with audio installations. Outside the key rooms lived in by Handel and Hendrix, we upgraded and introduced new exhibition themes covering instruments, each man’s musical output, and London itself - a design challenge in rooms on a domestic scale.