See pics of Jimi Hendrix's former London flat as it opens to the public

London - When he wasn't being a string-shredding, amp-blasting guitar hero, Jimi Hendrix liked nothing better than to sit at home drinking tea and watching the British soap opera Coronation Street.

Hendrix's former London apartment opens to the public this week, capturing a period when the musician was forging an international musical reputation and immersing himself in British culture.

Kathy Etchingham, the guitarist's girlfriend at the time, said on Monday that Hendrix was "a bit shocked by the lack of restaurants and the standard of food", but otherwise embraced British culture - including tea-drinking.

The apartment forms part of a museum called Handel & Hendrix in London.

Composer George Frideric Handel lived in an 18th-century London house for 36 years until his death in 1759. Hendrix and Etchingham lived next door in 1968-69.