Beatles Theme for This Year’s Chiswick Book Festival
Chiswick House to host discussion of band’s enduring influence
The Beatles perform at Chiswick House. Photo by Robert Whitaker, courtesy of Chiswick House and Gardens Trust
June 28, 2026
Chiswick House & Gardens and the Chiswick Book Festival will mark one of the most evocative moments in the area’s modern cultural history this September, celebrating sixty years since the Beatles filmed their pioneering music videos for Paperback Writer and Rain in the gardens. Two special events on Thursday 10 September will bring fans, historians and local residents together to revisit the day the world’s most famous band turned an 18th-century landscape garden into a piece of pop-culture legend.
The anniversary begins at 2.30pm with a guided walk led by Blue Badge guide Guy Fairbank, well known to festival audiences for his annual “Chiswick Rocks” tour. Fairbank will lead visitors through the gardens, pointing out the exact spots where the Beatles were filmed in May 1966, before continuing to nearby riverside houses with connections to rock music history. For many, it will be a chance to stand where John, Paul, George and Ringo once lounged beneath the cedar trees, creating two of the earliest examples of what would become the modern music video.
The celebrations continue at 7pm in the Garden Pavilion at Chiswick House, where broadcaster Samira Ahmed will chair an evening discussion titled “The Beatles: Film, Fame and Social Change”. Ahmed, author of the new BFI Classics book on A Hard Day’s Night, will be joined by Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, whose monumental biography series The Beatles: All These Years has earned international acclaim, and Tony Palmer, the distinguished filmmaker behind the 17-part documentary series All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music. Together, they will explore the band’s place in rock and social history, the significance of their Chiswick filming day, and the cultural shifts the Beatles helped to shape.
Doors open at 6pm, with drinks, books and DVDs on sale, and the evening will bring together other Beatles writers and followers who have long regarded the Chiswick shoot as a turning point in the group’s visual storytelling. After the panel, the speakers will hold book signings. The event echoes the celebrations held ten years ago for the 50th anniversary, when Chiswick House reflected on the lasting impact of the two films.
Members of Chiswick House & Gardens Trust will receive priority booking for the evening session from this Friday, ahead of general ticket sales opening at 9am on Friday 3 July. Members will be sent a special booking code and continue to enjoy a range of benefits as thanks for supporting the charity’s work to keep the gardens free and flourishing.
Xanthe Arvanitakis, Director of Chiswick House & Gardens Trust, says the anniversary offers a rare chance to combine heritage, music history and community celebration. She notes that the event will take place in a space where the Beatles made music history, a moment that helped earn one of the gardens’ cedar trees a nomination for the Woodland Trust’s 2025 Tree of the Year. She describes the Book Festival as a valued part of the Trust’s programme, helping raise vital funds to maintain the 65-acre Grade I listed gardens for future generations.
Torin Douglas, Director of the Chiswick Book Festival, says the Chiswick House evening is always a highlight for west London book lovers. Last year the festival marked the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen; this year it turns to the 1960s, celebrating the day the Beatles brought their creative energy to Chiswick’s historic landscape.
The Beatles anniversary events form part of the 18th Chiswick Book Festival, running from 9 to 14 September. The festival will open with the Local Authors Showcase at the George IV pub, followed by a wide range of speakers at venues across Chiswick. As ever, the festival will raise funds for St Michael & All Angels Church and three reading charities: Read for Good, Koestler Arts and Read Easy Ealing.
Tickets for the Beatles evening and other festival events will be available at chiswickbookfestival.net from Friday 3 July.
Programme updates and mailing-list sign-ups are available at www.chiswickbookfestival.net.
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