From the outside, 34 Montagu Square looks like an ordinary, albeit elegant, stucco-fronted Regency house. Tucked away in the heart of Marylebone, 10 minutes’ walk from the bustle of Oxford Street, it has a genteel air. Appearances can be deceptive, however: the house has been home to some of the greatest names in rock‘n’roll — and witnessed some of their wildest excesses.

Flat 1, which spans the ground floor and basement, was at the heart of the 1960s music scene. It was bought by Ringo Starr in 1965, but he and Maureen, his first wife, only lived there for a few months before moving to Weybridge, Surrey, after the birth of Zak, their first child.

The following year, Paul McCartney moved in, using the basement as a recording studio. He was followed by Chas Chandler, former bass player of the Animals, who brought with him the then-unknown guitarist Jimi Hendrix, and later, by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who posed for the infamous record sleeve of their 1968 Two Virgins album in the flat.

Countless other rock stars also passed through its nondescript front door for party after party. Musical history was written there: McCartney worked on Eleanor Rigby and Hendrix wrote The Wind Cries Mary.

It had its ups — it was the place from which Paul and Ringo set off to collect their MBEs in 1965 — and also its downs: in 1968 the police stormed the property on a drugs raid, which ended in Lennon’s conviction. Ringo was subsequently obliged by the freeholder to sell up.

The two-bedroom flat, bought by its current owner, Reynold D’Silva, a music label owner, four years ago for £550,000 (it is now worth £1m), is available to rent, through Cluttons. Which means that for £795 a week you, too, could recline by a fireplace once allegedly used to hide drugs or wallow in the large roll-topped bath where Jimi Hendrix once soaped himself.

The interior of the property bears little resemblance to its wilder heyday. It is light and airy, despite its ground and lower-ground floor layout. The rooms are clean and spacious: what was once an en-suite bathroom with a sunken pink bath is now an eat-in kitchen; the former basement kitchen has become a large double bedroom.

There is a neat little cloakroom, a spacious, if slightly dated, walk-in wardrobe off the master bedroom and a huge bathroom with marble double sink, bidet and separate shower, as well as the bath.

The walls throughout are white and the carpets a neutral beige — a far cry from the purple watered-silk wallpaper, silk curtains and lead-streaked mirrors that were put in place by Ken Partridge, the 1960s interiors designer, and remained until Hendrix threw paint at the walls during an acid trip (Ringo had the flat painted white after that).

In fact, the only real reminder of former days is the large collection of iconic photographs lining the walls, which D’Silva has painstakingly acquired and framed. They give a snapshot of a more hedonistic time: Hendrix leaning against the Montagu Square sign, John and Yoko emerging from the flat in dark glasses in one photo, and in another, displayed in the bedroom where it was shot, standing casually naked, having just photographed themselves for the Two Virgins cover.

Details visible in the background of the pictures show how much has changed: in one photo, Hendrix is by the stove, cigarette dangling from his mouth in front of a tacky stripped-pine wall, from which wires sprout randomly. The modern kitchen replacement is sleeker and there isn’t an inch of stripped pine in sight.

Some things have remained the same: the fireplace against which Hendrix is shown lounging in another photograph is still in the large front room. D’Silva, who fought off competition from Noel Gallagher to buy the property, was going to pull it out — but then changed his mind. “I really bought the flat because of the history of the place,” he admits. “I’d love to live there myself, but with a wife and three girls, it’s not really practical.” Unwilling to part with the property, D’Silva pondered how he could make it pay its way — perhaps by charging the dozen or so Beatles tour punters who turn up at the front door once or twice a week (potential renters be warned) a hefty entrance fee. He has instead decided to rent it out: ideally he would like it to be used as a site for a music television station, but accepts he may have to settle for a normal tenant.

In the meantime, with so much evidence of the flat’s history to draw on, he is trying to persuade Westminster Council to award the building a blue plaque. D’Silva is supported in this quest by Richard Porter, an author and authority on the Beatles. “It’s the ultimate rock‘n’roll pad,” says Porter. “It clearly qualifies as a candidate.”

- Cluttons, 020 7262 6767, www.cluttons.com

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