Rolling StoneRonnie Woodcalls the London home of legendaryThe WhoguitaristPete Townshend"the best house in the world." It’s easy to see why.
The Georgian-era house —on the market for a minimum of $21million— also features a secluded swimming pool, half an acre of terraced gardens, a vinery, conservatory, four cloakrooms, a large cellar, and a separate pool house.
More crucially, it holds a unique place in music history: Wood bought the home from Oscar-winning actor Sir John Mills in 1972 and later turned its one-time billiard room into a purpose-built music studio. It is here that theRolling Stonesrecorded the demo for their classic hitIt’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It), withDavid Bowiehelping out on vocals.
“The main thing about the home is that it just looks like a little doll’s house sitting on the hill,” Perry Press fromPereds real estatetells PEOPLE about the historic home. “But there’s actually 8.500 square feet of it. Once you get inside it sort of expands around you. It also has that outlook over the River Thames, which is quite astonishing considering it’s on the fringe of London.
Press, continues, “It’s got a series of oval rooms that sit on top of each other at the back: the drawing room, the main bedroom above it, and what has been used as a dining room or sitting room below it. They’re just really pretty rooms and you can step out straight onto the gardens which lead down to the pool and the pool house and then the garden terrace on the hill, which is around half an acre and really lovely.”
Thanks to its clever design, most of the house itself is hidden from the street, making it incredibly private, despite the fact that it’s just a short walk from the bustling pubs and shops of upmarket Richmond Upon Thames.
The 2,500 acres of open space, grassland, and roaming deer of Richmond Park nature reserve — the largest royal park in London — is also no more than a two-minute stroll away.
“It’s good for that because it lends itself to being a night-time room,” he continues. “Then the other studio rooms are just up for grabs. I should imagine that someone will put in a gym or something like that in them. I think they were staff rooms way back in the mists of time.”
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In September 2019,The Who shared details about making their first new album in 13 years. TitledWHOit debuted on November 22 of that year and featured the lead single “Ball and Chain.”
“I think we’ve made our best album sinceQuadropheniain 1973,” singer Roger Daltrey said in a statement toRolling Stone. “Pete hasn’t lost it. He’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge.”
source: people.com
