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| Ledger of subscribers to Handel's Twelve Grand Concertos from 1740 (Handel Hendrix House) |
Hallelujah House: Inside Handel's HQ: Handel Hendrix House
Reviewed 17 September 2026
A fascinating & thought-provoking exhibition celebrating both 25 years since Handel's house in Brook Street opened to the public and the way the house was central to Handel's musical life
It is 25 since Handel's house in Brook Street opened to the public and to celebrate Handel Hendrix House has opened a new exhibition, Hallelujah House: Inside Handel’s HQ which runs until 14 March 2027. Handel lived at Brook Street from 1732 until 1759 and the house was central to his music, both the writing of works and the production of them. It was his rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite and much more.
How to reflect this? Exhibition curator Olwen Foulkes has brought together objects from the museums collection and from loans which tell the story of the remarkable extent to which Handel's music spread across London, and the varied uses to which the house was put. The exhibition is not a single room of objects but more of a trail around the whole of Handel's house, making you view the spaces somewhat differently. But this isn't simply an exhibition about objects, each object evokes a story and these are told not via extensive captions but via online resources (via Bloomberg Connects).
She explains: "Handel was not just a creative genius, but someone who could organise, entertain, network and work ferociously hard to produce his brilliant music. The story of a creative entrepreneur working hard from home feels very relevant to today, and we are thrilled to be bringing together so many inspiring works of art and objects from museums and our own collections to bring this story vividly to life."
There are the great occasions from Handel's career celebrated, so we see engravings of the Royal Fireworks, the rehearsal for the music for this would give Handel one of the biggest audiences of his career. This rehearsal was at Vauxhall Gardens, so there is a portrait of the impresario Jonathan Tyers and his family (painted by Francis Hayman), as Tyers was an immense supporter of Handel's work and enables his music to be spread to a wider audience via Vauxhall Gardens, which became famous for its musical events.
Of course, such musical events needed rehearsal and we have various accounts of rehearsals in Handel's home. Intriguingly he rehearsed the Royal Fireworks Music there, presumably just the principals but this event was once commemorated at Handel Hendrix House with a mass performance by 100 school children! Handel's friend, Mrs Delaney, went to "Handel's house to hear the first rehearsal of the new opera Alcina. I think it the best he ever made... Whilst Mr. Handel was playing his part I could not help thinking him a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments."
Delaney was also particularly fond of Handel's early oratorio Deborah, attending several rehearsals. This piece used a huge orchestra with three organs, possibly small 'bureau' organs and the exhibition includes one such by John Snetzler made in 1754, small enough to be portable and suitable as a piece of furniture (hence the 'bureau').
Smaller, quirkier performances are reflected as well. There is a portrait of Thomas Britton (1644-1714) by Jonathan Wollaston. Britton was a coal merchant but a music lover too and put on music performances in an attic space above his shop. It was grim, the space was tiny, access rickety and visitors would get smudges of coal on their clothes. But he attracted musical luminaries, including Purcell and, later, Handel. He had a significant collection of music and the exhibition also had on display a violin associated with Britton. Handel's early attendance at these events probably helped him widen his musical circles in London. One of the things the exhibition tries to bring out is what a furious networker he was.
More subtly are the manuscript traces. There is a manuscript from the collection of Handel's friend, Elizabeth Legh that is in Handel's own hand. A skilled harpsichord player and a collector of Handel's music, much of her collection has links to Handel's close relationship with her (including manuscripts where he adds ornaments), suggesting she may even have been a pupil (her parents' London house was in nearby Hanover Square). More securely documented is Handel's teaching of Royal pupils, reflected in the exhibition by Philippe Mercier's The Music Party depicting the Prince of Wales and his sisters playing.
There is a letter by Handel (and not that many of those survive) asking Charles Jennens for feedback on Messiah. This would, eventually, lead to a break between them as Jennens had strong ideas and became annoyed when Handel did not simply do what he said! A reflection of the composer's distinct independence of mind. Handel's wider charitable impulse is displayed somewhat obliquely. There is a portrait of him by Thomas Hudson in an ornate circular frame depicting bulrushes, presumed to refer to the finding of Moses and hence to Handel's significant support of The Foundling Museum via his annual Messiah performances.
But music was a business too. Handel's downstairs parlours would be used to receive people interested in his music. An engraving of Handel by Jacobus Houbraken was produced to be included as a gift with the sheet music for Handel’s Ode Alexander’s Feast sold, like many of Handel's publications, by subscription from the room. Displayed also is a ledger detailing everyone who signed up for the 1740 publication of Twelve Grand Concertos. The list includes fellow musicians, authors, surgeons, merchants, military personnel, lawyers and several music societies, most of whom would have come to Brook Street to pay their guinea and sign up.
At times, the house in Brook Street must have been a hive of activity. Not just rehearsals, but when a printed publication was ready the music books had to be despatched to all those who had signed up. And then, before a work could be performed the music had to be copied. And we know that Handel's copyists included his secretary, J.C. Smith (Schmidt) and Smith's son, along with other regulars.
Rather touchingly, there is a pair of spectacles from the 1750s (of a type that were tied with ribbon so they went around your wig), reflecting Handel's increasing sight problems. (And nearby is displayed a replica wig, made of yak hair!). Alongside these is a book by notorious quack John Taylor who performed unsuccessful eye surgery on both Handel and J.S. Bach.[The writer Samuel Johnson said of Taylor that his life showed "an instance of how far impudence may carry ignorance."]
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