Search on for school children who watched them film in the Gardens fifty years ago

The Beatles

When you were younger, so much younger than today... on May 20th, 1966 did you race down to Chiswick House grounds to see the Beatles film promos for Paperback Writer and Rain?

If so, the Chiswick House & Gardens Trust would love to hear from you for their archives and to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the visit of the four most famous people on the planet at that time.

The film clips taken in Chiswick House, long before music videos were used to promote pop songs, show the Beatles miming to the songs in and around the 19th century Conservatory and the 18th century gardens. Thus Chiswick House can claim to be part of the birthplace of modern music video.

Footage of the films shows masses of presumably uninvited “extras”, children playing on the tree behind the band, schoolchildren in maroon uniform outside the conservatory, and students crammed against a gate trying to get a peak of the Fab Four who had taken refuge against the hordes of fans in the walled garden.

This grainy image shows local children watching the band

Do you know who they were? Were you there? If so, please email any anecdotes or pictures you may have of the day to archive@chgt.org.uk putting “Beatles Memories” in the subject field. The filming in the grounds is now regarded as being ahead of its time as bands did not have pop videos in those days. The group made the promotional videos as they were tired from touring.

Some of the filming took place in the Conservatory

Although the Beatles are long gone, fans and film aficionados still make the pilgrimage to West London to visit the scenes of the famous films.

The 65 acre grounds look significantly better than they did, thanks to a major £12 million restoration in 2010, but a trip to the first English landscape garden rewards visitors with reassuringly similar sights, of the Grade 1 listed Conservatory, children playing, grand vistas and hidden pathways, architectural delights and a dazzling array of flowers, shrubs and specimen trees.

March 16, 2016