Freddie Mercury’s Legendary London Mansion Lists for $38 Million
The late Queen icon Freddie Mercury’s cherished London residence has hit the market for the first time since his death in 1991 for offers above $38 million, according to listing brokerage Knight Frank, who is handling the sale.
Mercury had owned Garden Lodge, in London’s affluent Kensington enclave, since 1980. Upon Mercury’s death in 1991, he bequeathed the Neo-Georgian-style estate and all of its contents to his friend and former fiancée, Mary Austin. Austin has been living at and looking after the property in the three decades since, preserving it in much the same condition. She’s now ready to part with the home, Bloomberg first reported.
“This house has been the most glorious memory box, because it has such love and warmth in every room,” Austin, now 72, said in a press statement. “Ever since Freddie and I stepped through the fabled green door, it has been a place of peace, a true artist’s house, and now is the time to entrust that sense of peace to the next person.”
The stately abode—affectionately referred to by Mercury as his “country house in central London”—was built in 1907 by architect Ernest Marshall for artist couple Cecil Rea and Constance Halford and was at one point owned by Peter Wilson, a former chairman of Sotheby’s.
Mercury bought the place on the spot in 1980, according to Knight Frank, and had tapped interior architect and designer Robin Moore Ede to help bring his vision to life. The home’s showstopper is the double-height drawing room, where Mercury stored the grand piano that he famously used to compose “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Other highlights include a dining room featuring citrus-tone yellow walls (the singer’s favorite hue), a bar, and a sitting room with exquisite French doors that lead to the landscaped Japanese-style garden that Mercury helped design. Upstairs, the main suite boasts a dramatic dressing room, adorned with floor-to-ceiling mirrors that held Mercury’s extensive wardrobe and stage costumes. It’s a nearly pristine time capsule linked to one of music’s biggest names.
“The sale of Garden Lodge presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a significant property combined with a piece of cultural history, the beloved home of an icon,” Knight Frank’s Paddy Dring said in a statement. “Notwithstanding the legacy of the house, it is very rare that unmodernized homes of this scale, set in such beautiful mature gardens come to market, so it is certainly an exciting prospect for any future purchaser.”
Last year, Austin sold off a large portion of the star’s treasured possessions during a Sotheby’s auction. The event attracted a bidding frenzy of more than 41,800 eager bidders from across the world, on 1,406 lots. Interested buyers of the house, too, might want to move quickly on this slice of music history.
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