Friar Park

Friar Park is a 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames once owned by eccentric lawyer Sir Frank Crisp and purchased in January 1970 by musician George Harrison.OverviewSince the early 1970s, the property has become synonymous with the former Beatle's home studio, known as FPSHOT. Harrison biographer Alan Clayson has described the Friar Park estate as being "as synonymous with his name as the Queen's with Windsor Castle".Harrison put the whole property up as collateral in order to fund the Monty Python comedy team's movie Life of Brian after their original backers, EMI, pulled out at the last minute. As a huge fan of the Pythons, Harrison simply wanted to get to see the film − something that his friend Eric Idle has often described as "the most expensive cinema ticket in movie history".HistoryThe Friar Park estate was owned by Sir Frank Crisp from 1875 until his death in 1919. It then passed on to Roman Catholic nuns belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco order. The nuns ran a local school in Henley, the Sacred Heart School, but by the late 1960s Friar Park was in a state of disrepair and due to be demolished.