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What comes to mind when you hear the name Elton John? Probably the artist’s expressive, flamboyant, and colourful outfits – platform shoes, oversized glasses, sequins, and feather-trimmed leather jackets. In fact, it would be challenging to find anyone in the public eye with a more maximalist style than Sir Elton John.
Elton John during Yellow Brick Road Tour, 1974. Photo by Ed Finnell
His sense of style has become an institution after nearly six decades in the spotlight. The artist's penchant for exuberant, expressive colours and textures extends beyond his music and stage shows; he has always lived as he performed. The EGOT-winner’s over-the-top outlook on beauty has, of course, also deeply influenced the private homes he has resided in over the years – as a devoted collector of both interior design and art.
In his official autobiography, “Me,” published in 2019, he wrote: “For as long as I can remember, I’ve always found collecting things oddly comforting, and I’ve always enjoyed learning about things by collecting them, whether that’s records or photographs or clothes or art.”
Sir Elton John relaxing in his home, 1970's. © Getty Images
In his Hercules Era
It all started in 1972 when the young artist bought his very first house, located in the posh Virginia Water area of northern Surrey. John bought the home the same year he officially changed his name from Reginald Kenneth Dwight to Elton Hercules John. He also named the new house ”Hercules”, and even wrote a song with the same title on the album Honky Château. It didn't take long before his collecting took off – in the form of artworks, lamps, vinyl records, onyx eggs and pretty much any items that tickled his fancy.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always found collecting things oddly comforting
Shortly after moving to Virginia Water, the new homeowner visited a local bookshop owned by filmmaker Bryan Forbes. An instant friendship developed, and in his 2019 autobiography, Elton John describes how Forbes taught him about art and inspired him to start collecting. “First it was Art Nouveau and Art Deco posters, which were very popular in the early ’70s – Rod Stewart collected them too – then surrealist painters like Paul Wunderlich. I started buying Tiffany lamps and Bugatti furniture.”
The Spring Cleaning of a Lifetime
According to Philip Norman, the author of the 1993 biography Elton John, Elton John was a very meticulous collector with the mind of an archivist or librarian, cataloguing and cross-referencing everything he acquired, down to the smallest detail. The same was to be said about his record collection, which he carefully organised into categories and subcategories, with neatly written index cards.
© Getty Images
In 1976 John left his home in Virginia Water and moved to a property in Berkshire, near Windsor Castle – the Woodside estate – where he still lives today. After the summer of 1988, Elton John held a major four-day auction at Sotheby's in London, selling over 2,000 items from his extravagant collection. The auction raised over $8.2 million (far more than the estimated value of $5.1 million) and was dubbed a “spring cleaning” intended to redecorate his home. In his autobiography he writes about longing for a new beginning. He had just gotten divorced and the 1986 album Leather Jackets had recieved really disappointing reviews. To feel better he set out to start fresh, to renovate and redecorate Woodside and part of the radical solution was to “sell everything and start over.”
© Getty Images
To promote the auction the songwriter posed for the camera, surrounded by pieces of art, vases by French glass artists René Lalique and Émile Gallé, music memorabilia, some of his most iconic platform shoes and – of course – Tiffany lamps. He himself did not attend the auction, and he did not return to Woodside until two years later when the renovation project was completed.
Get inspired by Elton John's Hercules Home
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