Freddie Mercury’s Beloved London Estate Is on the Market

If you’re a fan of both Queen and that crazy little thing called real estate—and you have a bottomless bank account—an English estate has just arrived on the market that will, that will, rock you.

As TopTenRealEstateDeals.com reports, Freddie Mercury’s former home in Kensington, London, is up for sale. The Queen frontman left the home to his former partner, Mary Austin.

The relationship Mercury had with Austin was a powerful one, with the artist once stating: “All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s simply impossible. The only friend I’ve got is Mary, and I don’t want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that’s enough for me.”

And Mercury put his money where his mouth was, leaving Austin a Kensington home that is now accepting offers in excess of $38 million. His will stated, “You would have been my wife, and it would have been yours anyway.”

The striking home was built in 1908 for painter Cecil Rea and sculptor Constance Halford, and bought in cash by Mercury (or, as he was called on legal documents, Farrokh Bulsara) in 1980.

Kensington is one of London’s poshest neighborhoods, and the Neo-Georgian house, Garden Lodge, is somehow simultaneously smack in the middle of it yet appealingly secluded. It’s a few minutes’ walk from the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the local shop is Harrods. Need to ask a neighbor for a cup of sugar? You’re probably knocking on the door of Mr. Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson, or fashion designer/Beatle daughter Stella McCartney. Fancy!

Austin has lived in the house since Mercury’s death in 1991. In the decades since, the wall outside the home’s backyard has become a shrine of sorts to the singer.

“This house has been the most glorious memory box, because it has such love and warmth in every room,” says Austin of the home. “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 real estate agents, Knight Frank, are keen to draw attention to the many personal touches Mercury made to the design of the place, from lemon-yellow walls to floor-to-ceiling mirrors. They point out that the two-story drawing room once housed the grand piano on which Mercury composed “Bohemian Rhapsody.” That may not be as impressive as the piano still being there, or him having composed the song in the house (he bought the home in 1980, but wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the early 1970s, then recorded it in 1975), but it’s still an intriguing piece of music history. 

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