In 1970, George Harrison bought Friar Park at Henley-on-Thames; he restored its vast gardens and recorded music there, while his family still protects the estate

George Harrison spent the last three decades of his life falling in love with a garden. The former Beatle purchased an old Victorian mansion known as Friar Park in January 1970. According to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, which built an entire exhibition around Harrison’s love for gardening, he was only 27 years of age when he acquired this neglected property. This simple purchase grew into a restoration project that continues to thrive under the care of Harrison’s family.

A grand house that had fallen into disrepair

Friar Park was not built by Harrison. Records held by Historic England, the government body that protects the country's important sites, show the mansion was constructed in the late 1800s and was commissioned by Sir Frank Crisp, a lawyer, who designed the gardens that surround the property. By the time Harrison came looking for a new home, much of that splendor had long faded. Historic England's records, along with Selby Gardens' account, describe the magnificent Victorian mansion with its gardens as having run down, with yews having taken over the topiary.


A young Beatle finds his forever home

Harrison purchased Friar Park shortly after the Beatles disbanded, ending one period of his life as he embarked on another one. The property covered some 32 acres of land, inclusive of the main house and the smaller lodges, according to the exhibition. In an interview with NBC News at Friar Park, Harrison's second wife, Olivia, remembers how Harrison had been looking for some place away from the bustle of London, and Friar Park offered just what he wanted. She said the couple had moved several times in search of more privacy before finding Friar Park. After moving into the house with his wife, Pattie Boyd, Harrison spent more time outside than in his house.

Turning weeds back into wonder

Harrison didn't just hire a crew and walk away. He dug out weeds, clipped hedges, and did some gardening work by himself. Much later, when he married Olivia, they worked together to bring back the spirit envisioned by Crisp years ago. The Selby Gardens exhibition notes that Harrison shaped the plants into playful shapes and decorated the place with garden gnomes, reviving the whimsical spirit Crisp had created a century earlier. Some of the features of the original design, as interpreted by the museum, were an alpine rock garden with a mini Matterhorn, topiary and sundial garden, and hedge maze. Gardening became more than a pastime for Harrison. Speaking with NBC News, Olivia said her husband felt closest to nature, and to what she called a higher sense of peace, while working in the grounds. "It was really nature that he loved," she said in the interview.

Friar Park wasn't only a garden. It became Harrison's creative home, too. He built a recording studio inside the mansion, known as FPSHOT, short for Friar Park Studio, Henley-on-Thames, and he recorded music there for the rest of his life. The mansion and its gardens even appeared on his album covers and in his music videos, blurring the line between where he lived and where he made art, a detail Selby Gardens highlights in its exhibition notes.

An estate the family still protects

Harrison died in 2001, but Friar Park did not slide back into neglect. Olivia Harrison currently owns the estate, residing in it and keeping the gardens flourishing. Today, the estate’s significance goes beyond memory. The gardens of Friar Park are listed by Historic England as Grade II, a designation reserved for properties of particular historic interest. The mansion and several of its lodge structures have individual Grade II listings, making the estate not only an object of love but also one of legal protection. According to the files from Historic England, the listing happened in phases, beginning with the mansion in 1974 and the gardens in 1984.

That protection reached a wider audience in 2025, when Friar Park's story traveled across the Atlantic. According to Selby Gardens' official announcement, the museum's exhibition, George Harrison: A Gardener's Life, ran from February through June 2025 at its Sarasota, Florida campus, pairing horticultural displays inspired by Harrison's gardens with a selection of his music and lyrics. The exhibition also featured excerpts from Came the Lightning, Olivia's poetry collection reflecting on their years together at Friar Park. More than fifty years after Harrison first walked through its gates as a 27-year-old just out of the world's biggest band, Friar Park is still doing exactly what it always did for him.