It was in a Georgian house in London 300 years ago that George Frideric Handel composed some of his most sublime masterpieces, including his oratorio, Messiah. But it was also there that he gorged himself on so much food that one contemporary described him as “somewhat corpulent” and another observed that he “eats too much of those things he ought to avoid”.
Now the historic house in which he lived for 36 years is reopening following a £3m refurbishment that will reflect his passion for both music and food.
A recreation of 25 Brook Street as Handel knew it includes the dining room, where rehearsals and recitals were accompanied by food for up to 40 people, and the kitchen, where dishes were prepared.
Dozens of cooking utensils and place settings have been tracked down based on the inventories compiled shortly after his death in 1759.
They show how serious Handel was about food, as his guests realised. One wrote: “His chief foible was a culpable indulgence in the sensual gratifications of the table.”
Another listed the offerings – “rice soup with mutton in, petty patties, lamb’s ears, an eel pye” – washed down with “French claret, rhenish wine, madeira”.
Food was a sensitive subject, though. Handel fell out with a friend who published a satirical caricature of him as a fat boar playing the organ surrounded by food and drink.
One visitor recalled Handel excusing himself after dinner to write down musical ideas – only to be spied through the keyhole of an adjoining room enjoying a hamper of Burgundy.
As a musical genius, Handel could be forgiven. The German-born son of a surgeon, he wrote some of the greatest music in history, including masterpieces such as his Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. He became a British citizen in 1727, writing the Coronation Anthems for George II.
In the 1960s, Jimi Hendrix moved into an adjoining flat at No 23. The museum – now known as Handel & Hendrix in London – spans both addresses and will reopen to the public on 18 May with plans to stage exhibitions about the musicians.
A fundraising campaign enabled the museum’s trust to buy the lease of the whole property. The kitchen had been among spaces occupied by a commercial shop.
Through demonstrations and workshops, today’s visitors will be able to taste food from 18th-century recipes – at least some of the more appetising ones. Few are likely to stomach the thought of eating lamb’s ears.
Claire Davies, the museum’s deputy director, told the Observer that this will be the first period kitchen in a central London house of that size to open to the public.
Noting that Handel had two live-in maids and a manservant and that a cellist-singer may have moonlighted as his chef, she said: “Handel had lots of soirees, with food coming in and out. There are lovely accounts of a soprano singing an aria and having a bite of chicken and of Handel being shown a manuscript in the middle of eating a buttery muffin.”
The kitchen equipment includes a salamander, a hot iron used to brown dishes, like a blowtorch today.
Davies said: “The utensils indicate somebody who knows food and certainly has a taste for finer food.”
The recreation has involved commissioning pewter crockery and laying a floor of 18th-century stone.
Peter Brears, a food historian and former director of York and Leeds city museums, designed it based on historical evidence.
He said that a stove is among features that show Handel as a sophisticated gourmet: “Most people think historic cooking was done over open fires. But in the mid-18th century, any house of that quality, particularly if it was into catering, needed a means of cooking food gently and in a controlled way using charcoal stoves in the form of masonry benches with fire baskets set into their tops.”
Dame Jane Glover, a leading conductor and author of the acclaimed book Handel in London, told the Observer: “Unlike Mozart, who wrote amazing letters and comes roaring off the page at you, we have few personal letters by Handel. But he was indeed a foodie. Just look at the girth of him in all the portraits. His eyesight failed him but his appetite did not as he grew older and more infirm. What went into and came out of the kitchen was very important to him.”
