Keith Richards's Redlands — Drug Bust House, West Wittering

Redlands is the thatched country house in West Wittering, West Sussex, that Keith Richards purchased in 1966 and still owns. On the night of February 12, 1967, police raided the property during a party attended by Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, and several others, discovering small quantities of drugs. The subsequent trial — which saw Jagger and Richards convicted and briefly imprisoned before their sentences were overturned on appeal — became a cause célèbre of the 1960s and prompted The Times's famous editorial 'Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?', which argued the sentences were disproportionately harsh.

The Redlands bust was a defining moment in the relationship between rock music and the British establishment. The image of Jagger and Richards being hauled before the courts for drug offences that would normally have attracted a fine crystallised the generational conflict of the 1960s. The details of the raid — including the famously embellished story of Marianne Faithfull wrapped in a fur rug — became part of Rolling Stones mythology. Richards has lived at Redlands intermittently ever since and has described it as his favourite home in the world.

Redlands is a private residence in the quiet village of West Wittering, near the coast of West Sussex, and is not open to the public. The house suffered a fire in 1973 but was restored. The surrounding area is a mixture of farmland and coastal paths, and the house sits behind a wall on a lane leading away from the village. Richards's long association with the property — spanning over half a century — makes it one of the most historically significant private homes in rock history.