Portmeirion And Brian Epstein

    August 1966 Brian Epstein was recovering from a very serious bout of glandular fever. His doctor prescribed a quiet vacation to convalesce, "he went by himself to a luxury hotel in Portmeirion on the North West coast of Wales that overlooked the Sea, and wind-sewpt beach, as remote a place as you could get from London. Everyone’s advice was the same try not to worry." He had been there only four days when uproar occurred in parts of America when John Lennon's famous quote about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus was published out of context in a teen magazine. He felt compelled to leave his convalescence in Portmeirion to go and sort it out.

   This was not Brian Epstein's only visit to Portmeirion. Apparently he used to stay in Gatehouse cottage, which in those days was much smaller than it is today. Brian said to Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, architect and creator of Portmeirion, that what the cottage needed was a dinning room. Consequently Sir Clough built one, but in my opinion it is rather large and ostentatious for such a small cottage.

   If Brian Epstein had not have had to cut his stay in Portmeirion short, having had to leave, and had he still been there in early September 1966........... Well who knows.

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